


Hot Chocolate, Zambonis, and Ice Skates

by FlyingGirl



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-17
Updated: 2014-03-24
Packaged: 2018-01-09 01:11:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 34,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1139667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlyingGirl/pseuds/FlyingGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being an assistant manager at an ice rink is easy. Stumbling through a new relationship is like skating on thin ice. But Anna's definitely more than worth it. Kristoff can only hope that he is, too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

The stands at the hockey game were absolutely packed. The Arendelle High School Mountain Trolls were playing against the Corona High School Chameleons: their biggest rival. Arendelle had defeated them the past three years and they were aiming for the fourth year in a row. For everyone on the hockey team, especially the seniors, this was a pretty big moment.

Kristoff watched from the stands, not being able to enjoy the game as he normally would. He was not normally one for pity parties, but he kind of felt like he deserved to throw himself one. His family got by okay. Just okay. They weren't living off of food stamps or standing in lines at the unemployment office or pawning their possessions, but they weren't fabulously wealthy like the couple that owned this ice rink were. His parents had fed him, clothed him, sheltered him, and loved him. And they had put away money for him to go to college since before he was born and were still consistently putting money away in it to this day.

But times changed. Kristoff's grades were okay, but not enough to get him a scholarship, not even to the nearby Arendelle University. So he had been banking on a hockey scholarship. Then he had to go and slip and break his arm. Of all things, he slipped on  _ice._ Ice had been his  _life_ and it had betrayed him cruelly.

At least he didn't have to deal with his teammates anymore. It wasn't like he  _hated_ them or anything, he just never befriended any of them. They would all go hang out and go to parties after the game together and Kristoff didn't care that he had never been invited along. You can't make people like you. Besides, he always thought his Labrador Retriever Sven was better than people anyway.

And at least he didn't have to hear the constant complaining from his mom about how he smelled even though he took at  _least_ four showers after every game. That after game smell never seemed to go away. His truck still smelled like wet gear and…Kristoff pulled his hoodie away from him and sniffed. Yeah, the smell still lingered somewhat on him. Maybe he should try and find a stronger deodorant.

Arendelle shot the puck into the net just seconds before the first period ended and the crowd cheered wildly, the man beside Kristoff jostling him as they did.

"Hey!" Kristoff complained. The man either ignored him or didn't hear him. Probably the latter. Kristoff slid over to the edge of the bench to get away from people, practically sitting in the aisle. If he had had the choice, he wouldn't even be here, but he had missed a class earlier that day because of a dentist appointment and he was meeting someone here to get notes and the homework assignment.

If there was one thing the guys on the hockey team-and many people in the school-liked to discuss the most, it was Elsa Strand. She was the most beautiful girl anyone had ever laid eyes on, she made perfect grades practically effortlessly, she was on the fast track to becoming valedictorian, she was bound to become the senior prom queen, and she had been the only freshman ever to win Homecoming Queen. Practically every straight, hot blooded male fawned over Elsa and only the bravest of the brave had ever asked her out. They were all shot down one after the other. Kristoff, it seemed, was the only guy who had never been interested in her.

He could easily admit that she was pretty and smart, because those were the facts. But he had never been interested in her in the way every other male seemed to be. In fact, he had never had an interest in any girl (but that did not mean he had an interest in guys no matter what his cousin Harald tried to imply.) Maybe it was the fact that he didn't pine for her, and maybe it was the fact that he kept quiet and did the work, but in all the classes that they had together, Elsa would choose him to work with on projects, much to the jealousy of her admirers. But they quickly realized he wasn't a threat and continued with their one-sided flirting.

Anyway, he had texted Elsa, and she asked him to meet him at the game that night and she would get him his stuff. On top of everything else, Elsa had a job working for her parents at the Arendelle Ice Center. It certainly came in handy when she got him into the game without having to pay for admission. But being an assistant manager meant she had been very busy so he sat down, texted her his seat section and how many rows down he was and watched the game halfheartedly.

As if thinking about  _why_ he was hear in the first place had summoned her, Elsa appeared next to him as if by magic.

"Hey," she said, smiling tiredly. Kristoff scooted back over so Elsa could sit down, which she did with a big sigh. "Sorry it took me so long," she apologized.

"Busy night?" Kristoff guessed.

Elsa tucked her bangs back. "One of the concession stands kept needing more change because nobody carries around smaller bills with them or credit cards and one woman just did  _not_ get no matter how many times I explained it to her that the rink was  _not_ open for skating tonight because we have a game going on. Apparently I ruined her son's birthday." Elsa shook her head and looked up at the scoreboard.

"Wow, up by two!" she said and smiled approvingly. "Enjoying the game?" she asked, looking back at Kristoff.

He shrugged. "Well, I…hm, uh…" He unconsciously glanced down at his cast. Elsa caught where he had glanced.

"Not as much as you could be," she said for him. "Well, I should have time before another crisis hits. My stuff is in the office so if you just want to follow?" Kristoff nodded and grabbed his bag, glad it was a messenger bag instead of a backpack. The latter would have been a nightmare with the broken arm. Elsa led him to an Employees Only door and punched in a code on the keypad to unlock it.

"No retina scanners?" Kristoff joked as she led him down a hallway and past what looked to be a small break room to yet  _another_ door that needed a code.

"Anna keeps saying we need to install those," Elsa laughed. Kristoff didn't know who Anna was. Maybe she was an employee here? He didn't bother asking. The office was pretty nice, Kristoff had to admit. Two large desks were on either side of the room and through another door was another office with a single desk where a dark haired woman and a mustached man were sitting and talking. Elsa rapped her knuckles on the open door of the separate office and the man and woman looked up.

"Hey, Mom, Dad?" she said. Kristoff blinked in surprise. He should have  _known_ that those were Elsa's parents! They  _owned_ this place and the woman looked exactly like Elsa with dark hair. It was almost scary how much they looked alike, actually. "This is Kristoff Bjorgman. The guy from school I told you about?" She moved aside so Kristoff was in plain view. He waved awkwardly.

"Elsa told us you were coming by," Mr. Strand said. "Why don't you go ahead and have a seat while Elsa gets your stuff for you?" Kristoff was pretty certain from the look on his face that he didn't really have a choice. Mrs. Strand smiled reassuringly at him from her chair, but it did nothing to make him feel better. Suddenly the air in the room felt stuffy and he felt like he was on trial for some unknown crime.

Kristoff sat down carefully. The chair was much too small for him, but then again, most chairs were.

"So…" Mrs. Strand said with a cheerful little smile on her face. "You're the hockey guy?"

"Well..." he held up his cast for a moment before dropping it back down to his lap. "Used to be."

"We've seen you play in a couple of games over the years," Mr. Strand said. "You're pretty good. Your coach spoke pretty highly of you, too."

Kristoff gave a disbelieving look at that. "Really? Coach Oaken?"

Elsa popped her head into the office for a moment. "He said your playing skills far outweighed your smartass remarks," she clarified before going back to her desk.

"That sounds more like Oaken," Kristoff said, smiling a little. He glanced at the pictures that littered the walls of the office. The majority of them featured Elsa and a girl with red hair that looked eerily similar to her. Now that he thought about it, he was sure he had heard Elsa mention a sister before, but most of the times they interacted, she was all about work and divulged very little of her personal life.

"What are your college plans, Kristoff?" Mr. Strand asked seriously.

Kristoff sighed, knowing everything that came out of his mouth next would only disappoint the two people in front of him. "Right now the college plans are kind of…nonexistent until I come up with another plan. I was hoping for a hockey scholarship and I did get a couple of recruiters interested before…well…" he gestured to his cast. "But they lost interest and I probably won't be getting anything. My parents tried telling me that they can pay for college and we do have some money saved up but I'm not stupid. I know it's not enough. The most I could do is go to the community college in Corona and get an Associate's unless there's another option I haven't thought of."

Mr. Strand leaned back in his chair, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "What about Arendelle University? It's much closer than Corona. You wouldn't have to drive to the opposite side of the county."

Kristoff sat up a little straighter in his chair. "Well, Arendelle was my first choice. Their Business program looks pretty amazing; pretty much exactly what I wanted. But even that tuition is too much."

Mrs. Strand looked to her husband and-did…did she just nod? "Have you thought about maybe getting a job?"

That had been the  _first_ thing Kristoff had thought of. "I've applied, but I haven't heard back from anywhere and the places that I  _have_ heard back from don't pay all that well."

"Well you haven't applied here," Mrs. Strand said casually, but the corners of her mouth twitched upward as she watched Kristoff's facial expression change from confusion to disbelief to shock and back to confusion again.

"We pay well above minimum wage here," Mr. Strand continued, "and we're very flexible with college students and their schedules. You could start working here now and save up plenty by the time Arendelle starts their fall session in August. How old are you? Eighteen?"

Kristoff struggled to find his words. "Um-I-ye-no, not yet. Not until the eighteenth."

Mr. Strand sighed in relief. "Thank God! Emma and I here are going to cut back coming into the rink as much and Elsa's going to take over as the manager. We offered the other two managers Georgia and Keefe the position, but they want it to go to Elsa. But that means come August, I'll be short one assistant manager and I've gotten enough unhelpful hints from one of the City Council members about how I need to let  _his_ son run this rink but I'll be damned if I give that little pretty boy kiss ass any ounce of power. But I like you, I can tell Emma likes you and you came with a pretty glowing recommendation from Elsa." Kristoff leaned back in his chair to glance at Elsa through the open door. She was staring pointedly at the computer screen, her lips curved up in a sly smile.

"When we step down, you can step up," Mrs. Strand said, bringing Kristoff's attention back to the present. "So long as you work hard and if Elsa thinks you're ready for the position. We'll just have to see."

Kristoff was a little stunned by it all. He had just come in for homework and all the sudden he was being offered a job. Mr. and Mrs. Strand looked at him expectantly.

"Well?" Mr. Strand prodded. "Do you want the job?"

Kristoff nodded vigorously. "Yes, of course," he said. "I'd love-that'd be…thank you."

Mrs. Strand handed him some papers from her clipboard. "We just need you to fill this out to make it official-wait, that isn't your writing hand, is it?" she asked worriedly.

"No, I'm right handed," Kristoff assured her.

"We have a little break room for the employees just down the hall-" Mrs. Strand offered but she was interrupted by her husband.

"I've got one more question," he said. He looked seriously at Kristoff. "Are you and Elsa dating?"

"Dad!" Elsa said indignantly, storming into the office. "I  _told_ you, Kristoff and I aren't dating!"

"Well you've never  _had_ a boyfriend before!" Mr. Strand says. "And you were pretty insistent about us hiring Kristoff here I thought that there had to be some reason."

"We're not dating," Kristoff interjected.

"Aw, why not?" Mrs. Strand pouted. She looked rather disappointed. As did her husband.

Elsa very slowly inhaled and then exhaled.

"It is entirely possible for two people of the opposite sex to be just friends," Elsa insisted. "I'm pretty certain that Kristoff is not, nor has he ever been, interested in that way and I have never felt the same way about  _him._  No offense," she added to Kristoff. He was used to girls thinking he was less than a catch. It didn't faze him that Elsa thought the same way.

"None taken," he mumbled awkwardly. "And ditto."

At least Mr. and Mrs. Strand looked apologetic. "Sorry, Kristoff. Just wanted to make sure. It was nice meeting you." The couple both took turns shaking his hand.

"Welcome to the Arendelle Ice Center," they congratulated him and Kristoff finally felt a little bit of hope that he had not felt since he first heard the cracking of the bones in his arm.

* * *

Anna had decided that after spending most of the night in the press box with Olaf and finishing most of her homework, she really deserved a cup of hot chocolate before digging into her dreaded Algebra homework. It wouldn't be so bad if her math teacher actually  _taught_ …teached? No…wait…taught. Definitely taught. Or definitely  _not_ taught.

His idea of "teaching" was to show one example and then give you the homework assignment. But the problems looked nothing like the one he wrote out on the board and she'd had to struggle through the homework and try and get help from Elsa and her parents when she could.

The cup of hot chocolate thoroughly warmed her hands as she cradled it walking back toward the break room. To her surprise, there was one other person in there: some big blond guy in a hoodie, filling out an application.

Anna sat herself down at the other table and carefully set her hot chocolate down. She was known to be a klutz and the last thing she needed or wanted to do was knock her hot chocolate all over her homework in front of some stranger. Unzipping her backpack, Anna pulled out her math book and a few sheets of notebook paper. She looked up and noticed the blond guy quickly glancing back to the application.

"Hi," Anna offered. The blond guy jumped a little when she spoke and looked up at her.

"Sorry?" the blond said as if he hadn't heard her.

"I just said hi," Anna repeated awkwardly.

"Oh, um, hi. Hello…hi," the blond replied just as awkwardly. Making a decision on the spot, Anna grabbed her hot chocolate and sat at his table, plunking herself down in the seat next to her.

"I'm Anna," she said, sticking her hand out. The blond looked at her hand as if it might bite, then at  _her_ as if she might bite, then grabbed her hand to shake it. Anna was so taken aback by just how large his hand was and how it basically swallowed hers that she nearly missed his name.

"Kristoff," he said.

"Nice to meet you, Kristoff," Anna said cheerfully. She dropped his hand. Kristoff looked at her weirdly again and Anna doesn't know if it's a good weird or a bad weird…although in her experience,  _weird_ has never been a good thing.

"Applying for a job?" she asked, taking a sip of her hot chocolate.

"I already got the job, this is just a formality," Kristoff explained. He muttered to himself for a minute as he read part of the application. "You work here?" he asked.

Anna shook her head. "Not old enough yet. Not until I turn sixteen next March." Kristoff looks up at her and frowns.

"How'd you get back here?" he asks suspiciously. He's not the first to not realize who she is and he won't be the last.

"My parents own this place. I've been running around here since I could walk." And tripping and falling on her face but Kristoff didn't need to know that right away. They had just met, after all.

A look of vague recognition flashed in Kristoff's eyes. "Your parents are-" He pointed back toward the office. "So you're Elsa's sister?"

Anna nodded and her shoulders sagged slightly. Typical that he would know Elsa and be completely surprised that she had a  _sister_. Just wait until he got to know her better and saw how much clumsier she was and how much she put her foot in her mouth and how much  _prettier_ Elsa was when they stood next to each other and you could compare them easier that way.

"That's me," Anna confirmed.

Kristoff's eyes traveled up and down and Anna self-consciously tucked a stray hair behind her air and shrunk back a little from his gaze. "She's the one who got me this job," Kristoff said, going back to his application.

"What are you her boyfriend or something?" Anna asked curiously. If Elsa had gone and gotten herself a boyfriend and didn't say anything about it…

"I-what? No! No, I'm not her boyfriend!" Kristoff sputtered as his cheeks blushed furiously red. "Jesus, why do people keep asking that today?" he muttered to himself before looking back at her. "Elsa and I have been in nearly all of our classes together since the third grade. We're just friends."

Anna looked down at his blank plaster cast. "She didn't sign it," she observed, pointing to his arm. Kristoff looked down again at his arm and frowned.

"We're not  _that_ close," Kristoff explained. "Just close enough for her to recommend me to your parents for a job." Anna dashes over to her backpack and digs through it for a minute before, with a cry of triumph, she extracts the black marker she was looking for.

"Well your cast looks empty and lonely so I'm going to sign it," Anna decides, sitting back down, she reaches for his arm but Kristoff pulls it back.

"Why?" he can't help asking.

Anna rolls her eyes. "Because we're  _friends,_ " Anna says as if it's perfectly obvious but Kristoff gives her a disbelieving look.

"Since when? Didn't your parents ever warn you about strangers?"

"Since I decided we were just now and yes they did," Anna replied and she held out her hand patiently and expectantly. Kristoff sighs and finally gives in, looking amused.

"Just don't draw anything girly," he warns.

"Cross my heart," Anna promises, making the motion over her heart. She carefully wrote her name out nice and neat, biting her lip in concentration all the while. "There," Anna says, capping the marker again. She nods approvingly at the meticulously neat letters. "Now everyone will know that we're friends."

Anna gave him a five minute reprieve while she attempted another problem on her homework. She had just  _gotten_ the FOIL method down and now they wanted her to do the reverse? Why undo a perfectly good knot? Draining the last few drops of chocolatey goodness from her drink, Anna attempted to throw the cup into the wastebasket in the corner. It bounced off the rim and rolled back under her table. She heard a snort.

"Oh yeah, laugh it up,  _Kristoffer,_ " Anna said, ducking down under the table to find her cup.

"It's  _Kristoff,_ " he corrected. Oops.

"Hey, we've only been friends for like, five minutes," Anna tells him pointedly. She takes the time to actually walk to the wastebasket and drop her empty cup in there. "You can't expect me to know  _everything_ right away. I don't even know your last name."

"Bjorgman," he offers her.

"Or your favorite food."

"Carrots."

Anna wrinkles her nose. "Ugh, seriously? Carrots?"

He glares at her, fighting a smile. "They're good for you."

"If you eat too many of them, your skin can turn orange," Anna tells him matter-of-factly.

Kristoff crosses the fingers of his good hand. "Here's hoping."

"Your best friend  _has_ to be me," Anna continues.

"The girl who can't even remember my name? My best friend is  _Sven,_ actually." He puts the pen down, the application forgotten for a few moments.

"Sven?" Anna echoes.

Kristoff nods. "Yeah. He's my dog. Labrador Retriever."

"Do you have a picture?" Anna asked excitedly. She loved dogs. And cats. And ducks. And she was pretty much an animal person.

"Uh," Kristoff mumbled, searching for his phone in his pocket. He unlocked it and pulled up his pictures. "Here." He turned the screen to her to show her a chocolate lab looking at the camera with its tongue hanging out. "That's Sven."

"He's so cute!" Anna gushed. She wanted to pet him so badly.

"Cute? I'll have you know that Sven is a macho dog with an addiction to carrots," Kristoff said mockingly indignant.

"Gee, I wonder who's to blame there?" Anna giggled. "Well, Elsa's my best friend and you've already met her so I guess there's no point in me showing you a picture."

"Well maybe you can tell me what I should know about this job," Kristoff suggested. "What are the other managers like? Anyone I should watch out for?"

It was nice to feel like she was actually being helpful to someone, Anna decided. "Georgia and Keefe are family friends," she told Kristoff. "They've been friends with my parents before Elsa and I were even born. They're really nice and easygoing. You'll like them I promise. As for the other employees…" Anna played with the sleeve of her favorite green sweater. "They're all really great. Olaf works in the press box and if he likes you, you're pretty much guaranteed that ninety-nine percent of the other employees will like you. His brother works sharpening the ice skates but he's kind of the security guard, too, and he'll throw people out who are being too unruly. Don't let the tough biker guy act fool you, though. We call him Marshmallow."

"You're not serious," Kristoff deadpans.

"It's on his name tag."

Kristoff laughs, shaking his head in disbelief before picking up the pen again and beginning to fill out the emergency contact section.

"The only one you  _really_ have to watch out for his Hans," Anna says. "Mom and Dad really don't like him but he hasn't really done anything  _bad_  enough to get fired. He used to be a cashier but they got sick of him kissing up to them to try and get in their good graces and with him flirting with  _every_ girl he saw. Plus, he kept trying to boss other employees around, including ones that had been here for  _way_ longer than him so they made him part of the janitorial staff."

"So was it the flirting or the bossiness that got him demoted?" Kristoff asked.

"Both. But I think him trying to flirt with Elsa was probably the final straw. Too bad he didn't flirt with me, then my parents really could have fired him! A twenty year old flirting with someone who's not even fifteen yet? Yeesh!" Anna laughed awkwardly. "What lunch do you have? At school, I mean."

Maybe she shouldn't talk so much. She's probably bothering Kristoff. She's not used to being anything but a bother to everyone. But Kristoff hasn't told her to go away and Anna is desperate to make one friend in high school.

"First," he says slowly, sounding somewhat wary of where this conversation is going.

"Me, too!" Anna says happily. She frowns a second later. "How come I never see you?"

Kristoff looks a little uncomfortable. "I usually just go hang out in the library," he says, shrugging.

Anna harrumphs. "Well on Monday I want you to come sit with Elsa and I," she decides. "We usually sit at about the third table from the doors, right by the big window. And if you don't, I'll come and get on to you. I  _know_ where you work now."

Kristoff rolls his eyes, signing his name on the last page of the application. "Pretty empty threat from someone who's half my size," he says. "Think you can get this to your parents for me?" he asks, holding out the paper to her. Anna crosses her arms stubbornly.

" _Only_ if you promise to eat lunch with me and Elsa on Monday…and for the rest of the school year."

"Fine," Kristoff consents, shouldering his messenger bag. He smiled at her. "I'll see you Monday."

"Can't wait!" Anna calls out to his retreating back. Finally, for the first time in forever, she's finally made a new friend.


	2. Three Years, Ten Months Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being an assistant manager at an ice rink is easy. Stumbling through a new relationship is like skating on thin ice. But Anna's definitely more than worth it. Kristoff can only hope that he is, too.

_Three years, ten months later_

The harsh buzz of Kristoff's alarm clock broke through the morning haze, interrupting a very pleasant dream. Sven grumbled nearby in annoyance. Groaning, Kristoff reached blindly until he successfully hit the snooze button.  _Ten more minutes,_ he thought to himself, burying his face further into his pillow.  _I deserve ten more minutes. Stupid alarm._ Kristoff willed his brain to go back to the dream. The suddenness of the alarm had shattered the dream into a million tiny pieces and he was having a hard time remembering all the details. But he was certain that his dream had definitely involved Anna.

Despite his sleepiness, Kristoff found himself smiling.

Their friendship had definitely been an unlikely one at first. He was a man of few words and she could talk the ear off of anyone. He was a firm believer in looking before you leapt while she would run headlong into any situation and clean up the mess later. Anna had decided the night they met that they were going to be friends and there was no changing her mind. Not like he wanted to, anyway. Somehow they just…worked.

Working at the Arendelle Ice Center was working out great for him. The pay was astoundingly great and Kristoff had put every check away immediately, rarely ever touching a penny of it. Although they had mentioned wanting to make him an assistant manager from the very beginning, having the position officially offered to him by Elsa had been a shock. Well, the position had not been offered to him so much as he had been handed a new shirt, name tag, and pushed down into the chair at Elsa's old desk. The work was something he enjoyed and he'd be lying if he said he didn't like the small position of authority, the title, and the respect he got from the employees, even if he was more like a friend to most of them. And working with Anna was…definitely one of the biggest reasons he was able to drag himself out of bed

Speaking of which, his alarm buzzed again. His extra ten minutes were up. Kristoff sat up and stretched and groaned before turning off the alarm. He scrubbed at his face with his big calloused hand, feeling the rough stubble. He'd have to shave today.

Sven nudged his leg with his head, clearly annoyed and impatient. "Alright, buddy. I'm up. Let's get you breakfast." Sven didn't need to be told twice and he immediately ran out the bedroom and to his food bowl, waiting impatiently. Sven had adjusted amazingly well to apartment living since they first moved in during the summer. It was nothing fancy, obviously. Just a tiny one bedroom apartment that sometimes got a draft from the living room window, but it was his. He had saved for it for quite a while now. It also didn't hurt that Mr. Strand knew the owner of this apartment building and talked him down in price on the rent.

Kristoff gave Sven a scoop of dog food before disappearing into the bathroom to take a shower and shave. He was far from surprised to find Sven still sitting impatiently by his full food bowl, fixing Kristoff with a withering look when he emerged from the bathroom again.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" Kristoff said, laughing and shaking his head. "I can't go into work all smelly, you know that." He paused, mulling over his own words, and lifted an arm to sniff. Yeah, he had remembered to put on deodorant.

Kristoff had been extra concerned with his hygiene and looks for quite a while now. Not to say that he hadn't been concerned before. He was usually pretty clean, but in recent months he had been taking extra care with these things. And the reason why was something pretty obvious. Well, some _thing_ was just a little inaccurate.

The last thing Kristoff expected from this job was to fall in love with Anna but that's exactly what happened. Well, at least he was pretty certain that this was love he was feeling. They had been friends since he first started working there and Kristoff had been happy with that. But at some point within the past few months when spring gave way to summer Kristoff started to see her differently and think of her differently. Suddenly, Anna was more than  _just_ Anna to him and Kristoff finally had to admit that what he felt for her was more than just friendship now.

But despite all his pep talks with Sven and semi-rehearsed speeches in his bathroom mirror, Kristoff could not bring himself to do anything about it. All he had to do was ask her out. That should be easy, right? Wrong. Completely wrong. Anna always had the ability to make him an awkward, nervous, bumbling wreck without even knowing it. It seemed all she had to do was walk into the room and then Kristoff would forget what two plus two was, let alone the conversation he had rehearsed with Sven that morning for him to finally ask her out.

Maybe today would be different. Maybe today he'd finally get the courage to ask her out.

_And maybe pigs will fly,_ he imagined Sven saying.

Two envelopes were sitting on his kitchen counter where he wouldn't forget them. Maybe he still couldn't bring himself to ask her out on a date, but maybe this party could be a stepping stone to that.

Assuming his family didn't scare her away before he got the chance.

The Ice Center was already pretty busy when he arrived for his shift in the early afternoon. Usually Mondays were one of their slower days, but it was the week before Thanksgiving and everyone was getting into the Christmas spirit by coming out in droves with their friends and family to stumble clumsily on the ice and gorge themselves on concession stand food.

"Hey, Marshmallow," Kristoff called out, waving. Marshmallow said nothing in reply, choosing instead to glare at Kristoff as he sharpened a pair of skates. Despite Anna and Elsa's assurances over the years that Marshmallow was perfectly fine with that nickname and he wasn't going to murder Kristoff in his sleep, he still tried to keep his distance from the man.

Entering the code on the two doors was more muscle memory than anything else now. Punch in numbers, wait for green light, open door, stop in break room to clock in, go to next door, punch in numbers, wait for green light, walk in…notice that desk is occupied.

Anna was sitting casually at his desk, playing with her phone, her feet propped up on the very edge. Kristoff felt himself resisting a very strong urge to pull an Effie Trinket and push her feet off the desk and tell her that  _that_ was  _mahogany,_ even if he very well knew it wasn't.

"What are you doing?" Kristoff deadpanned.

Anna barely glanced up at him. "Sitting at your desk," she answered casually.

"I can see that. I can also see your  _feet_ up on my desk." He may not be a neat guy and a lot of the things he owned  _were_ secondhand, but that was a very nice desk and he took good care of it. Not being able to stand it anymore, Kristoff pushed her feet off himself. "Don't you have a sister with a perfectly good desk to sit at?"

"Yep. But she's using it. And this chair is  _really comfy._ " She wiggled around in it as if that proved her point.

"I know it's a comfy chair. I picked it out. Actually, I'm pretty sure I picked it out specifically because of that. I'm also pretty sure you have five seconds to vacate my chair before I sit on top of you."

Anna rolled her eyes and smiled amusedly at him. "You know," she said, putting her phone down on his desk. "I'm pretty sure that's a death threat right there."

"Death threat?" Kristoff echoed. The implications of what she had said finally dawned on him. "Wait…are you calling me fat?"

Anna looked more than a little horrified. "N-no!" she said hurriedly. "I was just saying that you're so much bigger than I am. And not big in a fat way! Big as in taller and more muscular and…all that muscle tends to add up and…you know what I'm just gonna go jump off a cliff."

"Hey, hey! It's fine. I get it." He stood up a little straighter and gave Anna a smirk. "You think I'm muscular?" Was he flirting? Was this what flirting was supposed to be? Was he doing it right? Did Anna know that's what he was trying to do?

Anna bit down on her lip, not meeting his eyes as she blushed. "Shut up. I'm supposed to be annoyed at you right now." She pointed up at the wall to the collage she had made him for his birthday. Well, it wasn't exactly the same collage. She had told him nervously when she had given it to him that he didn't  _have_ to keep it if he didn't like it and he should change out the photos if he wanted. And he had been doing that for quite a few months now, changing out one photo for another. "What is  _that_ picture of me doing up there?"

There had originally been five pictures in the collage and they had all pretty much featured Kristoff. He had been standing alone in one of them, there was one of him with Sven, one was an action shot of him at one of his high school hockey games, one of him with Elsa and Anna in the break room, and one final shot of him standing next to the Zamboni.

The photo of Kristoff and Sven had been changed for a photo of Kristoff and Anna with Sven. He had been allowed to bring Sven into the office one day when the poor dog had broken his leg and had come down with separation anxiety when Kristoff tried to leave for work. So he brought Sven into work and spent most of his shift doing computer work. Anna had doted on Sven that day, spoiling him with belly rubs and scratches behind the ears. They had both been sitting on the floor, laughing and bonding with Sven when Elsa had taken the picture. Neither of them had noticed until it was up on Facebook the next day.

The photo of Kristoff in his high school hockey days had been replaced by a photo of himself and Anna at the staff Halloween party from the month before. Anna had dressed up in a hockey jersey and carried around a hockey stick (which Kristoff and Elsa had confiscated from her when she accidentally hit a couple of people with it) and he had dressed up with a t-shirt that read "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Anna had been allowed to have the hockey stick back temporarily for the picture. His arm was around her in the picture. Normally Kristoff tried not to cross any boundaries with Anna as he didn't want to scare her away, so the photo had been a rare occurrence that he had been allowed to stand so close.

The photo of Kristoff with Anna and Elsa in the break room had been switched out for one of just Anna in the break room. Anna had been making faces at him all through lunch when she thought he wasn't looking and he finally warned her that if she didn't stop either her face was going to freeze that way, or he was going to immortalize one of her ridiculous expressions on film forever. She dared him to go ahead and do it and made another ridiculous face. Kristoff whipped his phone out then and there and snapped a photo of Anna squishing her cheeks up.

The photo of Kristoff standing alone had been changed to one of himself and Anna at her high school graduation party. He had very begrudgingly put on a tie for the graduation and the party itself. He still didn't have any idea at the time that his feelings toward Anna were starting to lean away from platonic and toward wishing for something more. Kristoff could still remember walking into the party and seeing Anna across the room in the dark green lace dress from the picture and not quite being able to explain to himself why his breath had been taken away or why he had started grinning like an idiot.

The photo of Kristoff standing next to the Zamboni had stayed. Really, he couldn't see a problem with any of the photos. He loved all of them. But Anna might not and he could guess which one she might have a problem with. Explaining to her that he had had that photo up in the collage since July might not help his case either.

Kristoff paled. "Oh. You finally noticed that."

"Uh-huh." Anna covered her mouth with her hand, her face screwing up as she attempted to hold in her laughter.

"I like that picture," Kristoff managed to say. "It makes me laugh." It took a moment for what he had just said to fully process. "Wait! That came out wrong! I-I just meant that…you're making a funny face in the photo and it's cute and all so sometimes it's nice to look at if my day's not going so well. Not that your face is something to laugh at! It's a nice face; it looks good on you…"

"You should probably stop talking now," Elsa's called out through her open office door.

Kristoff slapped a hand to his forehead. Great. He had forgotten about Elsa. Not only had there been a witness to  _that_ blundering moment, but that meant she also overheard his awful attempt at flirting, too. He should stop talking. He should also go and live in the mountains with Sven so he wouldn't embarrass himself around the girl he was very possibly in love with and her sister. "Hi, Elsa," he offered lamely.

Elsa walked out of the office with a money bag in hand. "Hi, Kristoff," she said, smiling. "Do you think you could go clean the ice in about fifteen minutes and then give Keefe a break out on the rink?" Not waiting for an answer she turned to Anna and handed her the money bag. "You're on register two at the concessions stand." She turned to Kristoff again. "I'm also looking for volunteers to come in on the first to help decorate for Christmas. I know it's close to finals, but if we have enough help, we can get it done in no time."

Kristoff shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Well, volunteer means I have a  _choice_ on whether or not I come in…" he said. But he knew Anna would be there, too and that was more than enough reason to come in and deal with a few hours of hanging up lights and garland.

"Yes, it does," Elsa replied coolly. "However, if you don't come in, then I'm volunteering your services as Santa this year."

Kristoff considered this for a moment. "There's no one else tall enough to reach all the really high places, is there?" he guessed. Kristoff sighed and dropped his head in defeat. "Alright, I'll do it," he consented. "And since you're both here…" Kristoff dug into his messenger bag and pulled out the two envelopes that had been sitting on his kitchen counter since Saturday night when he had gotten back from dinner with his parents. He hoped that neither of the two sisters noticed his slightly shaking hand as he handed them their invitations. Anna ripped into her envelope right away and pulled out the reindeer-adorned Christmas invitations.

"'It's time again for the annual Bjorgman Family Christmas Party!'" Anna read aloud. "'Please join us on Friday, December 27th, for food, music, and games! Can't wait to see you all again!'"

Anna looked up at him with those wide, curious eyes of hers. "Yeah," he said, ducking his head down and shuffling his feet awkwardly. "You guys said your parents were going to be leaving town day after Christmas and they'll be gone for a while. I asked my mom if you two could come over for the party this year and she said yes. You don't  _have_ to come if you don't want to. I just didn't want you two to be lonely or anything over the holidays or anything like that…you don't have to come." It was stupid of him to invite them. Of course she didn't want to come. Why would either of them want to come to his family's Christmas party? They'd only think it was stupid, that  _he_ was stupid-

"I'd love to come!" Anna said immediately, breaking through his self-deprecating thoughts. "We both would."

Kristoff was startled by her response. "Really?" he said in disbelief. "But it's going to be my  _whole_ family. There's…a  _lot_ of them. And my grandparents are Norwegian so the food may be really weird and not what you're used to."

Anna shrugged. "I'm not picky. And I'd love to meet your family."

_Whoa._ She…she said yes. He had hoped she would but the thought that she would actually…you know what, maybe asking her out wouldn't be so bad after all.

"We both would," Elsa added. "It sounds like it will be a lot of fun. You talk about your family so often. It'll be nice to finally meet them."

"And you'll get to see my parent's house," Kristoff reminded them. "It…it's actually kind of hard to find if you haven't been there before so I could pick you guys up or something?"

"We'll figure out a plan," Elsa promised. "Now,  _you,_ " she said, poking at Anna, "need to go to the concessions stand and  _you_ ," she said pushing at Kristoff, "need to get out to the ice."

"Alright, alright." Dropping his messenger bag at his desk, Kristoff grabbed his mittens and hat and the bright orange safety vest and whistle from his desk drawer. Anna walked with him down the hallway, so close but still not touching.

"You're gonna take that photo down, right?" Anna asked.

"Now, why would I do that?" He grinned cheekily down at her. "I could probably win some photo contest out there with it."

"Don't you dare!" Anna smacked his arm lightly

"No, I mean it," he says, holding open the door and letting her go ahead of him. "That is photography  _gold_ I have in there."

"You told me you deleted that picture," Anna reminded him, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"No, I  _told_ you I would when you had to go back to the register after your break."

"Then why does that picture even  _exist?_ "

"I lied. But, I promise that that was a one-time only occurrence. No more lies, I promise. And any picture I take of you that you don't like in the future will be deleted…eventually."

Anna rolled her eyes up at him. "You're impossible."

"And yet, you still like hanging out with me." He held up the bright orange vest as he followed her behind the counter. "You sure you don't want to take over this for me?"

"You know I don't skate," Anna reminded him. She punched her employee code into the register and started to load it up. "I'd need to be rescued if you sent me out there."

Anna was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, but the thought of having to come to her rescue…

"Well, lucky for  _you_ , I am a professional when it comes to ice skating, so if you needed me…" He shrugged and leaned casually against the counter, crossing his arms.

Anna gave a little hum and looked up at him, tapping her chin thoughtfully while her face scrunched up in concentration. "Now when you say you're a professional ice skater, do you mean that you used to be a figure skater or a hockey player? Because if it's the first one, I  _really_ need to see a picture of you in one of those sparkly outfits. Ooh! That can be my Christmas present!"

"I don't know why I even talk to you." Kristoff pushed away from the counter, shaking his head and laughing.

"No, wait, Kristoff! Don't leave!" Anna pleaded through her giggling. She wrapped two hands around his arm and tugged him back to her. "I'm sorry-" she began. Kristoff looked down to notice her hands hovering above his chest. She pulled them back, clasping one hand in the other. "I'm sorry," she said again. "You were a very tough and manly hockey player and you have never once worn anything sparkly. At least, I hope you haven't."

"Never have, never will," he promised. He looked down into her eyes for a little too long and they both seem to notice just how close they're standing because they both take a step back. "Well, I'm gonna go and tell Olaf that he needs to clear the ice," Kristoff said awkwardly. "Do you need any help with your math homework or studying for your final in that class?"

Anna sighed in relief. "Oh, my god,  _yes!_ Thank you! I mean, if it's not too much trouble-"

"It's not. I'll see you on your break." Kristoff tugged his hat over his head and left the concessions stand before he could say something stupid. That had all gone…surprisingly well. Inviting her to his family Christmas party seemed like a big hurdle and he had actually managed to do it. Sven would be proud when he told him all about it later tonight.


	3. Bjorgman Family Christmas Party

Kristoff whistled as he pulled up to the security gate. He had been expecting it, sure. It was right there in Anna's directions she had e-mailed to him a few nights before.  _"Turn left on 53_ _rd_ _Street and drive half a mile. You'll see the gates for Arendelle Estates up ahead. Just tell the guard your name and you're here for me and Elsa."_

Kristoff rolled down the driver side window of his truck and the guard ducked out of his booth, looking at Kristoff questioningly and eyeing his beaten-up pickup with some distaste. "Hi?" Kristoff said, feeling self-conscious of his truck for the first time. He cleared his throat. "I'm, uh, I'm Kristoff. Kristoff Bjorgman. I'm here to see the Strand family? Anna and Elsa are expecting me."

The guard nodded. "Yes, yes, go on through." He ducked back into the booth and pressed a button and the gates in front of him slowly creaked open. Rolling the window back up, Kristoff glanced down at the directions again.

"Walt Avenue," Kristoff muttered under his breath. "Waltavenuewaltavenuewaltavenue…second street on the right. There we go." He turned on the street and drove down all the way to the house at the end. The ice rink business had certainly been kind to Mr. and Mrs. Strand. The brick house was massive and the Christmas lights covering it twinkled brightly, making it look like a picture right off of a Christmas card.

Kristoff drove his truck into the driveway, parking in front of the garage and as close to the front door as he could get. He pulled on his hat and mittens before quickly turning off the truck and hopping down on to the pavement, walking quickly up the steps to the front door. He rung the doorbell and listened to it chime as his breath came out in a misty cloud in the cold night air. A few moments later he heard some shuffling on the other side of the door and finally the door swung open, revealing a smiling Elsa wrapped in a blanket.

"Kristoff!" she said happily. "Come in! Come in!" Kristoff did as she said, stepping inside the warm, grand house. His jaw dropped when he saw the large, grand staircase, twisting up to places unknown, before he snapped it closed again.

Elsa had not seen this, for her back was turned to him as she went to the bottom of the stairs and called up them. "Anna? Anna, Kristoff's here!" There was a yelp from upstairs, followed by a thud, then a few beats later, Anna's voice called out.

"Just a minute!" she said.

Elsa laughed, turning back to Kristoff. "She's finishing up getting ready," Elsa promised. "She had a hard time deciding what to wear to the party tonight."

Kristoff elected not to mention that he had changed his shirt twice already when he was fretting over the same thing. Not that it  _mattered_ all too much since it was covered up by a sweater and his vest and jacket. Instead he looked to Elsa and noticed that she seemed rather underdressed for the party. Sure, his family was pretty laid back, but even they might raise a few eyebrows when they saw her pajama pants and blue fuzzy slippers. "Did, um, did you need a few minutes to get changed? I don't mind waiting."

Elsa shook her head. "I'm sorry. I can't come tonight," she said solemnly. "I'm feeling under the weather. Sore throat."

Kristoff raised an eyebrow at her and was about to say that her voice sounded remarkable for someone who had a sore throat when they were interrupted. Anna came bounding down the stairs, skipping a few of them before sliding down the banister on the last couple of feet. Kristoff stepped forward instinctively when she stumbled on her landing, ready to catch her, but Anna righted herself before anything could happen and she smiled triumphantly.

Kristoff grinned. "Hey! You look, um…you look…nice." She was decked out in her favorite pink winter jacket and hat, her short legs clad in bright blue skinny jeans, and her favorite, well-worn pair of black boots. Despite, according to Elsa, the worrying over her outfit and despite Kristoff's lack of fashion knowledge

Anna smiled sheepishly at him and bit her lip. "Thanks." She turned to Elsa. "I'll text you when I get there and when we start heading back."

Elsa hugged Anna briefly, patting her back. "Just be safe," Elsa told her. She looked pointedly at Kristoff with a look that clearly said  _If anything happens to my sister, I am going to demolish your precious Zamboni and make you watch._

"I will," Anna promised. She grabbed the present bag resting at the bottom of the staircase and skipped to the front door, tugging on Kristoff's sleeve to drag him after her. He managed to at least twist in front of her and open the door for her. "Bye, Elsa! Don't wait up!"

"Don't wait up?" Elsa echoed skeptically. Her tone made Anna pause in the doorway while Kristoff waited halfway out in the cold. "It's  _you_ we're talking about, of course I'm going to wait up and worry. For all I know, you're going to trip over something and cause some sort of power outage."

"Pft! That only happened the one tiiii-ooh!" Elsa had forcibly pushed Anna out the door and straight into Kristoff. They stumbled for a moment before Kristoff caught her. He looked back up at Elsa-was she smirking?  _Why_ was she smirking?-but she shut the door, leaving Kristoff and Anna in the awkward situation of clinging on to each other.

* * *

Kristoff drummed his fingers against the steering wheel as he drove. He was nervous. He was man enough to admit that. Then again, he  _was_ bringing Anna to his family's Christmas party. Who, in their right mind,  _wouldn't_ be nervous? He glanced over at Anna, sitting happily in the passenger seat with her hands held up to the vents.

Taking one hand off the wheel, Kristoff groped behind him and picked up the extra jacket he had brought along just in case Anna or Elsa got cold. She was faking that sore throat and he knew it! He just couldn't figure out why.

"Um…here," Kristoff said, offering the jacket to Anna. She eagerly grabbed it and draped it over herself.

"Thanks!" she said, grinning.

"You're welcome. So…" He nodded down toward the bag at Anna's feet. "What'd you get me?"

Anna stuck her tongue out at him. "Not telling.  _But_ it's not just your present in here. I went down to that doggy bakery and got some special treats for Sven  _and_ I made your mom and dad some brownies!"

They made another turn down a country road. They'd be at his house within minutes. Oh, God. He was bringing a girl to meet his family. He loved his family, he did, but he had  _never_ brought a girl home before. And Anna just wasn't just some girl. She was  _Anna._

"So…" Kristoff began awkwardly. "About my family."

Anna sat up a little straighter, listening intently.

"I don't want to scare you, but they can be…inappropriate…and…loud…" He laughed awkwardly. "Very loud. They're also stubborn at times, a little overbearing and heavy. Really, really heavy, which you'll-but you'll get it-they're fine. They mean well-"

"Kristoff!" Anna interrupted. She placed a reassuring hand on his arm. "They sound  _wonderful._ "

Kristoff let out a sigh of relief. Anna's hand did not leave his arm for some time. Did…did she know it was still there? Maybe he should tell her. But that would ruin the moment…whatever moment was actually going on here.

He made the final turn and the family farmhouse finally started creeping into view. Cars were parked all over the place and, after a quick count, Kristoff surmised that his family had all arrived. So much for slowly introducing Anna to them all.

"I guess this is it?" Anna said, peering out of the windshield as they pulled up to the house. At least they had left a spot near the front door open for Kristoff.

"The one and only Bjorgman House," Kristoff replied, shutting off his truck. He got out and went over to Anna's side to help her down since his truck was so far off the ground. She put one of her gloved hands into his-just to steady herself because of all the ice on the driveway and he was going to have to come out here and do some salting before they left-as they walked up through the front door.

"Mom! I'm back!" Kristoff called into the house. Everyone was busy talking to each other in the living room, so she didn't hear him over all the noise. He took off his coat and helped Anna with hers, throwing both of them on the crowded coat rack.

Anna nodded approvingly, tugging off her hat and gloves and stuffing them into her coat pocket. "I like it!"

Kristoff smiled, feeling like he passed some sort of test with Anna liking the house. "Thanks. Did you want a tour first or-"

Anna wasn't looking at him and she gasped at something over his shoulder. "Oh…my…is-is that  _you_?" she asked, pointing. Kristoff turned around and groaned. Oh, great. Anna had already noticed the embarrassing childhood and baby photos that plastered the walls.

"Yes, it is," Kristoff sighed. "And I'm regretting not burning those things when I had the chance."

"But you were  _so cute!_ " Anna gushed. "I-I mean, you're still cute  _now._ I wasn't trying to say that your cuteness went away with age. Because it didn't. It probably multiplied or something like that. Wait, what?" Anna blushed furiously while Kristoff was distracted by the fact that  _she_ thought  _he_ was cute. Sure, he'd prefer rugged, handsome, or manly, but he'd take cute.

"Is that when you first got Sven?" Anna asked quickly. She was pointing at a photo of a fourteen year old Kristoff holding a puppy Sven.

"Yeah," Kristoff answered, wanting to dispel the awkwardness for Anna. "That was back when he was a cute and innocent puppy. You know, before we discovered that he had an addiction to carrots that could make a crack addict look like a model of self control."

Anna giggled, the tension in her shoulders relaxing. Her eyes went wide again as she pointed to another photograph. "I  _need_ to know the story behind this one."

"No, you don't."

"Kristoff! You were an eight year old dressed up as a reindeer! I  _need_ to know why!" Anna insisted, grabbing his arm and shaking him back and forth. Kristoff laughed.

"First of all I was seven," he corrected as he poked Anna's sides, "and secondly, it was for a Christmas pageant. My second grade teacher thought I needed to be more social and to get out there more so she made a deal: if I wore a reindeer outfit for the pageant and sang in front of everyone, I could pick whatever song I wanted."

"Rudolph?" Anna guessed. Kristoff rolled his eyes and directed her attention back to the photo.

"Do you  _see_ a red nose?" he demanded playfully. "No. I wrote a masterpiece of my own about how reindeers were better than people."

Anna's eyes lit up. "Is there a video of this?  _Please_ tell me there's a video."

There  _was_ a video, as Kristoff discovered when he was helping his parents convert all their VHS tapes to DVDs, but he shook his head at Anna. "No, my family didn't film it. Speaking of whom, did you want to go and meet them now? Or would you like to laugh some more over my baby photos?"

Anna tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "As much as I'd  _love_ to do both of those…I was actually wondering where the restroom was?"

Kristoff pointed behind her. "Down the hallway, first door on the right. I'll just be in the living room." He took her present bag from her and walked from the foyer and into the crowded living room.

"Kristoff! You're home!" Mrs. Bjorgman, a short and squat woman with slightly graying hair bounced over to him and hugged him tightly. "Look, everybody! Kristoff's home!

"Hey, mom," Kristoff said, hugging her back. Mrs. Bjorgman pulled away from him and reached up, grabbing his face in her hands and turning his head left and right, inspecting him closely. "Mom!" Kristoff complained.

"I just want to get a good look at you!" Mrs. Bjorgman gushed. She licked her thumb and quick as a flash, she rubbed at a spot and Kristoff's cheek. He recoiled from her touch, furiously wiping away at that spot.

"I was here  _yesterday._ "

"Do you have any clothes you need washed? I can get started on a load right now!"

"I can wash my own clothes, mom!" Mrs. Bjorgman ruffled her son's hair playfully. Kristoff quickly smoothed it back down. He had spent a while combing it tonight and he preferred it to stay that way.

"Hey, dad," Kristoff said, making his way over to the man. "Looking sharp as usual." He bent down to put down Anna's presents by the Christmas tree.

Mr. Bjorgman smiled as he proudly looked down at his reindeer sweater. "Well, of course I'm looking sharp! We've got beer in the kitchen if you want any."

"Just one," Kristoff said. "I have to drive tonight."

"Well, just stay here in your old room!" Mr. Bjorgman suggested.

"I can't do that, I have to-"

"Have you seen how your Uncle Toby's looking?" Mr. Bjorgman gestured to the nearly unrecognizable man beside him.

"Whoa! I didn't even recognize you, you lost so much weight!" Kristoff noticed. His Uncle Toby looked very proud and patted his newly flat-er-ish stomach. "Anything else new with anyone?"

"I passed a kidney stone," his Uncle Busby said grumpily. There was a tug on Kristoff's jeans. He looked down to see three of his young cousins surrounding him.

"I grew a plant for my science project!"

"I earned my campfire badge!"

"Pick me up! Pick me up!" Kristoff obliged, picking up his young cousin and turning him upside down.

"You're getting big!" he said over his young cousin's giggles. "Good for you! I think something's wrong here, though. Your head looks an  _awful_ lot like feet." He turned toward his aunt, the mother of this particular cousin. "Did you know about this?"

"Who's that?" his cousin asked, squirming awkwardly in his arms as he pointed. Kristoff, and the rest of his family, all turned to see Anna standing in the entryway of the living room.

"Oh, this is Anna," Kristoff said, putting his squirming cousin back down on the floor.

His family said nothing. They blinked once. Twice.

" _He's brought a girl!"_ Mrs. Bjorgman cheered happily, throwing her arms up in the air. Kristoff walked quickly over to Anna while his family shouted back and forth and over each other at this news. He was worried about this being a possible reaction and if Anna wanted to run, he was gonna help her.

"There's hope after all!" his Uncle Toby cheered.

"She's like a little cupcake!" his Aunt Heidi gushed.

His cousin Alfred held out a hand to his cousin Harald and said "You owe me fifty bucks!" And Harald pulled out his wallet and grumbled loudly about "closets."

"What's going on?" Anna asked Kristoff.

"I've learned to just roll with it," he said nonchalantly. "Mom! Would you calm down?"

"But it's a Christmas  _miracle,_ Kristoff!" Mrs. Bjorgman cheered.

"I  _told_ you I was bringing Anna!"

"Oh, I know," Mrs. Bjorgman said nonchalantly.

"I told you weeks ago! I've even shown you her picture!"

Anna looked up at him, eyes narrowed. "What picture?" she asked threateningly. Before Kristoff could answer that it was a very nice and normal one of her, Mrs. Bjorgman was in front of them and grabbing onto Anna's face.

"Let me see!" she said, examining Anna closely. "Bright eyes, working nose, strong teeth…yes, yes…" she turned to the family at large. "She'll do nicely for our Kristoff!"

Kristoff buried his face in his hands and grumbled  _"Oh, no."_ Yes, he had thought his family might react a little…enthusiastically towards Anna, but this was going a  _little_ too far.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Anna said hurriedly.

"No, mom, you've got the wrong idea! Anna's just my friend!"  _Unfortunately,_ Kristoff mentally added.

"Right," Anna agreed, nodding. "We're not-I'm not-" she giggled nervously up at Kristoff.

"Well, what's the issue, dear?" Mrs. Bjorgman wanted to know. "Maybe I'm biased, but Kristoff's quite a catch! Why are you holding back from that? Why  _aren't_ you two dating? Kristoff's my only chance at having grandchildren and that can only happen if he finally loses his vir-"

Kristoff clapped his hands over Anna's ears. Even if she probably already  _knew_ it already, he did not need his mom running her mouth and letting the whole world know about his virgin status.

"New subject!" Kristoff declared almost hysterically. "Where's Grandpa? Grandpa's less crazy than the rest of you!"

"He's napping," his grandma chimed in.  _Great._ Anna gently pushed Kristoff's hands down.

"Why  _aren't_ you two dating?" Mrs. Bjorgman demanded to know. "You'd make such a cute couple! Oh! I bet I know what it is! Kristoff, you need to smile more! The girls will never know what a pretty smile you have if you don't whip it out more often. Come on, now. Smile!" Standing up on her toes, Mrs. Bjorgman pushed up on Kristoff's cheeks, forcing him to smile.

Kristoff laughed awkwardly as Anna smiled at the scene. She wasn't running away yet.  _She wasn't running away yet._ Either he had found the perfect woman or she was completely insane. Maybe a little bit of both.

"I bet it's because of his feet!" his grandma suggested. "I always thought they were shaped kind of funny. They're almost…square."

"His B.O.  _was_ really bad when he was younger but I thought that problem had been taken care of," mused his Aunt Liv.

"I played  _hockey_ ," Kristoff reminded her. "There is  _no_ hockey player on the planet that smells like daisies."

"I  _told_ you that you should have taken him to a psychologist when he was younger for his social impairment!" his Uncle Busby said accusingly.

One of his young cousins ran up to Anna, tugging on her sleeve. When he had her attention, the young boy clasped his hands and proudly announced "We went camping in the summer and Kristoff taught me how to pee on a tree!"

"I did not need to know that," Anna decided, looking up at the ceiling.

"Maybe she doesn't like blond men!"

"He only had lice that one time!" "No, I didn't!"

"Don't buy that tough guy act, honey. He's just a big teddy bear and likes hugging!"

"Enough!" Kristoff finally shouted. "Come on, Anna. You must be thirsty. Let's get you a drink!" he began to lead her out of the living room and toward the kitchen, but not before they were stopped by one more relative: his Uncle Paul.

"Anna, I'm Paul," Paul said, shaking Anna's hand vigorously. Kristoff may not have told you this about me, but I just so happen to be an ordained minister. So if you and Kristoff are ever in need of my services in the future-"

"Wait, what?"

"You know, for marriage."

Kristoff dragged Anna quickly away from his crazy family and into the kitchen. "Sorry about…that," he said, gesturing back toward the living room. He opened up the cooler and pulled out a bottle of beer, quickly twisting the cap off.

Anna just shrugged. "It's fine. All families are embarrassing. I bet if my parents had been there when you came to pick me up, they would have shown you pictures of me dressed up as Ariel for Halloween."

Kristoff smirked. "Now I know what to tell Elsa to get me for my birthday." Anna smacked his arm playfully.

"If it helps, I actually really like your family," Anna told him.

Kristoff blinked at her in surprise. "Really? Even after all that?"

Anna nodded. "Even after all of that."

Wow. This girl was amazing, smart, funny, brave, beautiful,  _and_ she liked his family. Why couldn't he just ask her out? He should. He should do it.

Mrs. Bjorgman came running into the kitchen, smiling at the sight of the not-couple in front of her. "Dinner will be ready soon," she promised, peeking into the oven. "Why don't you two go back to the living room? They're about to play the video of Kristoff's Christmas pageant!"

"The one where he's dressed as a reindeer?!" Anna gasped excitedly. "You told me there  _was_ no video of that!"

"I thought I hid it well enough!" Kristoff groaned.

* * *

Anna had been a pretty good sport the whole night, despite all of the inappropriate and loud comments. His family loved her and she had even put up with all the photos his mom had insisted on taking. Kristoff had to eventually put a stop to that when the directions she gave for photos became increasingly embarrassing ("Put your arm around her! Hold her close! Closer! Now…if you could just lean toward each other and  _kiss,_ that'd be-Kristoff, stop being so difficult about this. Oh, have you never kissed anyone either? No wonder you're so nervous! Guys! Kristoff's never kissed a girl!")

Presents had gone over well. Anna and Elsa had gotten him a new jacket because his hoodie was riddled with holes and Anna had laughed at his homemade "Kristoff Coupons" offering a free rock climbing lesson and a free ice skating lesson.

"Your parents own an ice rink and you can't skate. It's embarrassing. Oof!" he grunted when Anna smacked him in the chest for that remark. "Why are you so violent?" He had also included a snowflake necklace which, he explained hurriedly, was part of a matching set and there were earrings in Elsa's present and they could switch if one would prefer the other or she could give both to Elsa if she hated the necklace. Anna told him to stop talking and just help her with the clasp already which he had trouble with due to his hands being so large and slightly trembling.

Too soon and not soon enough, it was time to drive Anna back home. Kristoff wanted to spend more time with her, of course, but his family kept asking questions that were increasingly personal and inappropriate (he blamed the gløgg) and he needed to get her out of there.

"I had fun tonight! And yes, I'm serious. Stop looking at me like that."

Kristoff couldn't help laughing. "Alright, alright, I believe you. Doubt Elsa will when you tell her how crazy my family is."

"Sure she will. She knows you."

"Oh! I see how it is!" Kristoff acts offended while Anna dissolves into nearly uncontrollable giggles. "Keep it up and you won't be invited to the Bjorgman Fourth of July Barbecue!"

"Is that supposed to be a threat?" Kristoff reached over and playfully shoved her. They pulled into the driveway of Anna's house a short time later and Kristoff was disappointed to see the night come to an end.

"I'll walk you up," Kristoff offered, turning off the truck.

"Wait! Wait! Wait! You can't do that!" Anna insisted, hopping down out of the truck.

"I…can't? Why not?" he asked, getting out of the truck as well and preparing to follow her. She was acting weird.

"Because there's a second part to your present!" Anna said excitedly. "I couldn't wrap it because then you would have known what it was." Looking ready to burst with excitement, Anna grabbed on to his arms and looked him sternly in the eye. "Just wait right here and I'll be  _right_ back!"

"But it's cold out," Kristoff complained.

"And cover your eyes," Anna ordered. "I mean it! No peeking!"

Sighing, Kristoff closed his eyes and covered them with his hands. Anna was really excited about the present, whatever it was and he decided he would play along. He began counting to one hundred when he heard the front door close and he got as far as seventy-nine before he heard it open again.

"Can I look yet?" he asked.

"No! Not yet!" Anna scolded. "Just one more second!" He heard some shuffling and mumbling from Anna before she ran back over to him and tugged on his sleeve. He brought his hands down, smiling at Anna's excited squealing, and he blinked once. Twice.

Leaning up against the garage door was a brand new snowboard, topped with a big red bow.

"I owe you a snowboard," Anna said proudly.

There had been an incident several weeks back when they had decorated the rink for Christmas. Elsa had a doctor's appointment and Anna's car was in the shop, so Kristoff offered to drive her home. They had skidded off the road due to some black ice and the wheels of his truck had gotten stuck in some snow. He had pulled a bunch of stuff out of the bed of his truck and laid it on the road to get to his shovel and the salt, including his old snowboard that he had gotten secondhand from one of his cousins back on his sixteenth birthday (he had gone snowboarding with them over Thanksgiving and still hadn't taken it out of his truck yet). Anna had accidentally nudged the snowboard further out into the road and another truck drove by moments later, completely destroying it. Kristoff wasn't mad that it had happened, maybe just a little disappointed, but Anna had felt guilty and he knew she had been beating herself up over it.

But he hadn't been expecting her to go out and get him a new snowboard!

Kristoff's jaw dropped in surprise. "Are you  _serious?_ " he breathed.

"Yes!" Anna squealed. "And it's the latest model."

"No, I-I can't accept this." It was too much.

"You have to!" Anna demanded, pointing a finger at him, her face scrunching up. "No returns! No exchanges! You aren't called the 'Ice Master' for nothing!"

"I'm pretty sure I'm only called that because I treat the Zamboni like it's my kid," Kristoff says but he's smiling and laughing. She got him a snowboard. A brand new, really, really nice snowboard.

"Do…do you like it?" Anna asks. She's biting her lip and clasping her hands as she looks up at him nervously.

"Like it?" he echoes incredulously. "I love it!" Unable to contain his enthusiasm and before he can stop himself, Kristoff picks Anna up and spins her around in the air. "I could kiss you!"

Wait, what did he just say?

Anna looks just as shocked as he feels at this sudden proclamation and he quickly puts her back down on the ground. For some unknown reason, his brain decided that since his secret was  _finally_ out, he might as well keep digging his own grave and keep on babbling.

"I  _could._ I mean, I'd  _like_ to," he amends. "May I? We me? I mean- _may we?_  Wait, what?" We me?  _We me?_ That doesn't make any-

His thoughts scatter and his eyes widen in shock as he feels the press of warm lips to his cheek. He looks down with a hopeful smile on his face at Anna, who's coming back down off of her tip-toes.

She's smiling, too.

"We may," she allows. Not bothering to hesitate, Kristoff leans down and presses his lips against Anna's. She makes a little, barely audible, surprised noise at the back of her throat when their lips make contact. He uses one hand to gently cup one side of her face and his other arm wraps around her waist. For a moment, he's worried he may have crossed a boundary-given permission to cross it or not-but then Anna's lips start working against his. Her hands slide up his chest and to his shoulders, gripping them tightly. His hand slides down from her face to her back, drawing her closer to him. Kristoff was pretty inexperienced with kissing, but Anna was making pleasant noises in the back of his throat, which encouraged him that he was maybe doing something right. Anna's lips parted as they moved against his and even he knew what that meant. Slowly, cautiously, Kristoff slipped his tongue forward. Anna groaned in contentment.

After a few minutes, they finally part with wide eyes, swollen lips, and slightly out of breath.

"So…um…" Kristoff says awkwardly. His arms are still wrapped around Anna and she doesn't seem to mind. Her arms are still wrapped around him, too. "Are you…free next Saturday?"


	4. First Date

It was rare for Anna to be up and about before noon on her days off from work. It was even rarer for her to actually be up in time for breakfast over a holiday. But at eight in the morning, as she stirred from her slumber and sleepily looked at her alarm clock and decided it was  _way_ too early to be up and she needed to go back to sleep immediately, the events of the previous night came flooding back to her. Anna's eyes snapped open and her hand went to her mouth, remembering how the kiss had felt.

It all felt surreal; like last night had just been a dream-and she had dreamed about what it would be like to kiss Kristoff a  _lot_. But it had all certainly  _felt_ real. His lips had been so firm but gentle as they worked against hers. Anna had made a little disappointed noise when he finally pulled away (who needed to breathe when you could be  _kissing?_ ) and she had nearly missed him awkwardly asking her if she was free next Saturday.

Anna had swallowed and nodded. "Y-yeah!" she said breathlessly. "Totally free. I'm scheduled off."

"Me, too." They stared at each other in an awkward silence. "So, um…so, now what?" Kristoff asked, trying to sound nonchalant. Anna tilted her head up and tugged on the front of Kristoff's jacket. He got the message and leaned down to kiss her again. Anna would have been more than happy to stand out there all night and kiss him senseless, but he did something with his mouth that made her shiver and that made him think she was getting too cold and he called it a night right then and there.

_Damn._

Despite Elsa promising to wait up for Anna, she was already asleep by the time Anna had gotten inside and she was eager to fill her sister in on the details. Throwing off the covers and pausing only to slip on her favorite pair of fuzzy slippers before running for the stairs.

Elsa barely looked up from her cup of coffee as Anna tore into the kitchen and crashed down into a chair, making it tilt dangerously to one side before she managed to shift her weight and make it sit upright again.

"I take it last night went well?" Elsa asked, arching an eyebrow. Anna nodded eagerly, her grin stretching from ear to ear.

"He kissed me!" Anna squealed. Elsa looked happily surprised.

"He did?"

"Yes!" Anna squealed and giggled excitedly, burying her face in her hands. "I can't believe it finally  _happened!_ "

"I knew he liked you," Elsa said smugly. "I take it, from your reaction, that it was a good kiss?"

Anna sighed dreamily. "Holy-! Yes! Yes it  _was._  I won't go into detail since he's your friend but…he's good. Really,  _really_ good." She paused thoughtfully. "He must  _really_ like the snowboard."

"No, he must  _really_ like you," Elsa corrected. "I've been telling you for  _months_ and  _months_ now but you wouldn't believe me." She set her coffee cup down on the table and crossed her arm, looking at Anna knowingly. "Something else happened…didn't it?"

Anna rocked back and forth.  _"Maybe…"_  she allowed.

"Anna, we  _live_ together. It's easier if you just come out and tell me this stuff now," Elsa warned. "If you tell me, we can go out for some chocolate chip pan-"

"He asked me if I was free next Saturday!" Anna squealed. "That…that means it's a date…right?"

Elsa rolled her eyes. "He  _kissed_ you and you're still asking that? Anna, Kristoff is head over heels for you and that little scaredy cat has been working up the courage to ask you out on a date for a long time. I knew he needed a little extra push and I thought you two going to that party alone would finally get him there. My plan worked better than I expected. Good thing you were both scheduled to have next Saturday off, right?"

Anna looked at her sister incredulously. "There is  _no way_ you planned that! No way! You…you really planned that? How were you so sure he'd ask me out for then?"

"I'm psychic," Elsa deadpanned. "Now go get dressed and comb out that rat's nest before I change my mind about the pancakes."

* * *

Kristoff had had no idea what to say or how to act around Anna when the ice rink had opened again on Monday morning. She had acted the same way to the extent that Kristoff begun to wonder if the kiss  _had_ actually happened until later that day when he and Anna were eating lunch alone for the break room.

"So about our date this Saturday," Anna said nonchalantly. Kristoff coughed and sputtered in the middle of taking a rather large gulp of water. "Are you alright?"

Kristoff nodded, coughed, cleared his throat, before very carefully taking another sip out of his bottle. "Went down the wrong pipe," he choked out when he had swallowed.

Anna clasped one hand in the other and bit her lip nervously. "It…is  _is_ a…youwereaskingmeoutonadateright?"

Why was she speaking so quickly? "What was that last part?"

"Because I was pretty sure that's what you meant when you asked me if I was free next Saturday and you did kiss me I mean you  _really_ kissed me it wasn't like a friendly kiss because I think friendships would get really complicated if you went around kissing people like that left and right and Elsa said that you definitely meant it as a date and that's kind of why she lied about being sick so maybe if we were alone for long enough you'd finally ask me-"

"I knew she was faking it!"

"But if you didn't mean it as a date and you just meant like you wanted to hang out-"

"I meant it as a date," Kristoff interrupted. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he blushed. Why did this have to be so awkward all of the sudden? He liked her and she seemed to like him, too.

"Oh. Great." Anna nodded. "So…anyway…I was just wondering what we were going to do?"

Oh no.  _Oh no._ Kristoff had spent so long working up the courage to ask her out, that he never gave any thought as to what they would actually do because he had never actually factored in the possibility of Anna saying yes. He…he should have spent the weekend thinking of  _this._ Not wondering whether or not the kiss had  _actually happened._

"Because if you didn't have anything definite planned," Anna continued, tucking her hair behind her ear, "I was thinking I could redeem one of my Kristoff Coupons."

"That, um, that sounds good. I'm up for whatever you want to do. Which one of the coupons were you planning on redeeming?"

"The ice skating one. Elsa's tried to teach me a couple times through the years and she's kind of given up on that."

Kristoff nodded. "Sounds great. So…how about I pick you up on Saturday around eleven, then we can come here and try to teach you how to skate…then…I don't know…lunch or something afterwards?" That sounded like a date. Or like what people were supposed to do on a date. A date. He was going on a date with Anna in a matter of days. This was really happening.

"It's a…date…" Anna said slowly, seeming to test out the words on her tongue. She bit her lip and giggled, a blush began to creep up on her face. Glancing down at her phone, Anna's expression went quickly to one of alarm. "My break ended five minutes ago! I gotta go, I better go! I have to go get my money bag from Elsa! Bye!" Anna took off back to the office, leaving Kristoff behind in the dust. Chuckling and shaking his head he started to dig back into his own food when Anna came running back into the break room, money bag in hand.

"Did you forget something?" Kristoff asked teasingly. In answer, Anna leaned down a pressed a very quick kiss to his cheek, leaving him just as stunned as the first time she'd done it. Before he could say anything, Anna was off running again to leave him in his stunned silence.

Now it was Saturday, the day of their date, and Kristoff still felt like a bundle of nerves as he pulled his truck into the parking lot of the ice rink with Anna in the passenger seat beside him. He'd even put on some of the cologne his mom had gotten him for Christmas when he had gotten ready.

Kristoff opened the passenger door for Anna and helped her down, much like he had done at his family's Christmas party. The only difference was this time, when Anna took hold of his hand, he knew it wasn't because of the ice.

"When was the last time Elsa tried teaching you how to skate?" Kristoff asked out of curiosity. They were lacing up their skates while everyone was clearing the ice for Georgia to clean it.

"I think," Anna said, tapping her chin thoughtfully, "I was ten or eleven. It was a disaster. Elsa gave up after that. Actually when I told her what we were doing for our date, she called you nuts."

"Yeah, she's told me that several times this week," Kristoff admitted. "And she's made several comments about how I  _finally_ manned-up and asked you out." Oh, he had had an  _earful_ from all the managers,  _plus_ Olaf when he had gone and spoken to him earlier that week.

Kristoff stepped out on to the ice first before turning back to Anna, who was looking like the most terrified fish out of water he had ever seen. Bracing one hand against the wall, he held his free hand out to Anna.

"Hey, it's okay," he assured her. "Don't worry about this. I've got you."

"Pft! I'm not worried," Anna said offhandedly. "Do I look worried to you?" Yes, she did. But she also looked determined to do this. Taking one wobbly step out on to the ice, Anna grabbed on to Kristoff and let him help her plant both her skates on the ice. "This isn't so bad!" Anna giggled nervously. "Do we have to move or can we just stay here?"

Kristoff gave her a look. "It's not technically skating if you don't move. I practically grew up on skates and I have to do some skating as part of my  _job_. You'll be fine, I promise. Okay?"

Anna nodded. "Okay. Sounds…how do I do this?"

"I'll skate backwards in front of you and you just start by taking some baby steps. Like you're walking."

"You can skate  _backwards?!_ " Anna said incredulously as Kristoff took her other hand in his and started to lead her out on to the ice.

Before he could answer, Olaf's voice came over the speaker. "This is your DJ  _Soulaf_ , speaking. These next couple of songs were specially selected by me at the request of  _Kristoff_ for his  _first date with Anna!_ Hi guys! Just look at them! They look so cu- _Kristoff._ If you were trying to make a rude hand gesture at me, I can't see it because of your mittens and there are  _children around._ Shame on you!"

Anna would have collapsed from laughter if it wasn't for Kristoff holding her up.

"For the record, I just asked him to put together some songs you would like and to  _not_ make a big deal out of it," he explained. He pulled Anna upright when she began to tip forward. "I thought it'd be nice."

"It  _is_ nice," Anna said immediately. "It-it was just the look on your face! You looked ready to kill Olaf."

"I could probably get away with it if it weren't for Marshmallow," Kristoff complained.

"That meddling Marshmallow!" Anna cursed jokingly. "Seriously, though, getting Olaf to make a playlist for me is…pretty sweet. Who knew that you were such a romantic softie?"

Kristoff blushed. "Let's just keep that between you and me."

"And everyone who heard Olaf just now."

"Between you, me, and all of Arendelle."

"My reputation is doomed," Kristoff lamented, but he was laughing. "Olaf made that little announcement and now I'm ice skating to Taylor Swift."

Anna pouted. "I happen to  _like_ this song."

"Go ahead and keep on liking it. Just because you're cute doesn't mean I have to like everything you do."

Anna raised an eyebrow at him, looking coy. "You think I'm cute?"

"You're doing pretty well on the skates so far."

"And you're changing the subject."

"Yes, I am. Bend your knees a little-don't look down! Looking down is bad. Just look at me. And try and relax a little. Ice skating is a lot easier when you're not so tensed up."

Kristoff pulled Anna around and around the rink until the first song ended. It was pretty nice, actually. Anna still was a complete klutz when it came to the skates but she was getting better. When she began to extricate her hands from his he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed but the feeling was dashed away by the excited look on Anna's face.

"I want to try by myself," she said. She still held on to one of his hands, not ready to let go yet. "Any pointers?"

"Uh, yeah." Kristoff pulled her over to the wall so they could talk for a minute without getting in everyone else's way. "Don't fall."

_"Kristoff…"_ Anna complained.

"And if you do start to fall, bend your knees and squat."

Anna rolled her eyes. "You know, you could have used that opportunity to say something romantic like 'if you do fall, I'll be right there to catch you.'"

"Fine." Kristoff took both her gloved hands in his and looked into her eyes. "If you  _do_ fall…make sure you also clench your hand into a fist when you throw your arms out to catch yourself-"

"Kristoff!"

"-because I don't want somebody slicing your fingers off with their skates."

Anna looked horrified. "That can happen?" she asked incredulously. "No, seriously, that can  _happen?_ I have blades of  _death_ strapped to my feet right now? And exactly  _how_ was that supposed to be romantic?"

"Well, you didn't let me finish," Kristoff insists. "I don't want your fingers getting sliced off by blades of death because that would make it very hard to hold your hand. And I kind of like getting to do that so…be careful?"

Anna tried to glare up at him, but her mouth twisted up into a smile. "I would just skate away from you, but I still need your help. And we haven't had lunch yet."

"I see how it is," Kristoff laughs. He starts skating with Anna again, one of her hands still clasped in his. "The only reason you said yes to this date was for the free ice skating lesson  _and_ for the free lunch!"

"My parents own this place and we  _both_ work here. We can skate for free any time we want."

"You're just  _trying_  to make me look bad now."

* * *

As sore as Anna's feet are, she's sure that Kristoff's head is feeling a lot worse. He  _had_ been trying to be sweet and catch her, but he had underestimated Anna's clumsiness. Kristoff swore over and over again that he hadn't hit his head  _that_ hard and he had a thick skull anyway, but Anna knew that he had disappeared into the back office to find the ibuprofen she knew he kept in a desk drawer.

Anna sipped at the hot chocolate he had gotten for her and smiled into it. Despite giving Kristoff a head injury, the date was going rather well and the comments from the rest of the staff had been kept to a minimum.

"Having a nice time?" a smooth voice drawled from behind her. Anna scowled and turned around in her seat.

"What do you want, Hans?" Anna demanded. Mr. Sideburns himself ignored the question and sat down in the seat across from her.

"I mean, it's just surprising to me that you're out on a date with  _Kristopher._ I thought you and I had a special connection." He smirked as he gestured between the two of them and Anna's blood boiled.

"I agreed to meet you for coffee  _once_ back in June and all you did the whole time was talk about yourself," Anna reminded him.

"That's what you're supposed to do on dates." He was speaking to her as if she was a disobedient child. "You're supposed to get to know each other."

"You never asked a single question about me," Anna hissed venomously. "And if  _that_ was supposed to be a date, then you are sorely mistaken. Why don't you just get back to your register and count yourself lucky that the managers agreed to reinstate you as a cashier?"

"I just got off my shift, actually," Hans said. "I thought I'd come and talk to you."

Anna sighed, shaking her head. "The reason we don't actually work together, even if we're on the same shift, is because I don't  _want_ to talk to you. Now get out of here so I can get back to my date."

Hans bowed mockingly and pushed himself up from his chair, casting a half-hearted wave over his shoulder as he swaggered away. Anna took another sip of her hot chocolate. Stupid Hans. Stupid sideburns. Stupid…face.

When she spotted Kristoff half jogging back to her, Anna felt relieved and smiled at him. Kristoff and Hans were as different as night and day and it wasn't hard to guess which one she preferred.

"Sorry," Kristoff apologized, sitting down next to her. "Georgia started to interrogate me. Wouldn't stop making comments about how  _cute_ we are."

"We?" Anna said incredulously. "I thought I was the cute one?"

Kristoff looked offended. "Since when am I not cute?" Anna snorted into her hot chocolate, accidentally spilling some onto the table top. "And," Kristoff continued as he picked up the nearby napkins and helped her dab away at the mess, "she said to tell you that if I do anything to hurt you, let her know and she and Keefe will beat me over the head with something heavy."

"I think you've already gotten enough head injuries on my behalf for a life time." Anna reached out and tenderly touched the spot where his head had hit the ice. He winced, but he didn't pull away like last time and after a moment, he actually leaned in to her touch.

"Nah, it's fine," Kristoff said nonchalantly. "I told her she had my permission to hit me over the head as many times as she wanted."

Butterflies erupted in Anna's stomach. Kristoff could deny it as much as he wanted (and he hadn't really denied it much at all today) but he was a romantic with a heart of gold. Grinning, Anna stretched and kissed the spot on Kristoff's head that had hit the ice.

Behind him, their coworkers at the concession stand started  _awww_ -ing wolf-whistling at the sight.

"Shut up!" Kristoff said grumpily to them. He turned a furious shade of red as he pushed himself up from his seat and held out his hand to Anna. "Come on. You must be starving."

And as they walk hand in hand out the doors, Anna can't help but think that if  _this_ date was going so well, then she couldn't wait until the next one.


	5. Valentine's Day

Kristoff was desperately wishing for the earth to just open up and swallow him whole so he wouldn't have to go through with this. He should have seen this coming. This was pretty much  _expected_ of him now and (if he was a lucky, lucky man) this would be expected of him for years to come. Muttering under his breath, Kristoff tugged his hat further down on his head and quickly exited the truck, making a beeline for the automatic doors of the supermarket. The object of his mission was obvious the moment he walked through the doors.

Why did there have to be so much damn  _pink?_

Kristoff glared at the offending items that were the cause of his mission today as if they were personally responsible for the situation he had found himself in.

_Valentine's Day._

Kristoff glanced over at the flower department, noting the dwindling stock and it was hardly even midday yet. He had had the sense to order flowers in advance and boy had he felt like an idiot doing it. Now every time he came in here for groceries, he swore the florist was always snickering at him.

"I wanted to order some flowers for Valentine's Day?"

"Ooh, getting your order in early? Smart! Any particular flowers in mind?"

"Um…"

"What kind of flowers does she like?"

Shrug.

"Haven't been dating long, have you?"

"…couple of weeks."

"Well do any of these flowers speak to you?"

"Not since  _Alice in Wonderland_."

"Do you have  _any_ information for me to go on?"

"…"

"Sir?"

"…she likes pink?"

In the end, the florist had recommended some pink carnations and after giving one of them a brief glance, Kristoff nodded in approval. They looked girly enough.

But before he could pick up the flowers he needed to get candy and a card. And he needed to do all of these things and still leave the store with his dignity. Why was he doing this again? And all he had to do was think of Anna and her smiling face and the way she bit her lip or tucked her hair behind her ear and  _okay, he would do this for Anna!_

They had been out on several dates since their initial ice skating date but they still hadn't made anything official. Kristoff didn't want to jump the gun and call Anna his  _girlfriend._ The last thing he wanted to do was pressure her into a relationship if she didn't want to be in one. But her response to him asking her if she wanted to do anything for Valentine's Day two weeks ago  _had_ been rather enthusiastic…and that gave him some hope.

Okay…candy…candy…this should be easy. Anna liked anything with chocolate on it. He was convinced that it was actually chocolate syrup and not blood that ran through her veins. So picking something that she would devour within seconds would be easy…right?

Kristoff briefly considered just grabbing a random heart shaped box and going with that. But it seemed so…generic. He groaned in frustration.  _Why_ did this have to be so  _hard?_

Then he spotted it on the top shelf. Oh.  _Oh._ Anna would have a field day with that. It'd be gone within a day. Kristoff plucked the giant Hershey's Kiss off the shelf and nodded approvingly. This was definitely an Anna-sized piece of chocolate.

The brightly colored cards were an assault on his eyes and only worsened his mood. But he was a man on a mission. Now…where was the section of cards that wasn't too sappy but still romantic enough for Anna? He needed a card that accurately conveyed his feelings for Anna while also allowing him to retain every ounce of manliness and dignity he still had. Kristoff picked up one at random. Hm, okay. There were some funny cartoon characters on the front. They looked happy, bright, and colorful. Kind of like Anna. He opened the card-

_"I LOVE YOU!"_ the card screamed.  _"KISSY KI-"_  Kristoff quickly shoved the card back where he had found it.  _No. No cards with sound._  Especially not ones that screamed at you.

What Kristoff needed were cards that were more mature. He was twenty-two now and Anna would be nineteen next month. They were adults. Hm, this one seemed okay. Kind of humorous, too, and he liked making Anna laugh and smile. He opened the card…

_No._ No.  _Not that one. Too_ adult.  _Too_ mature.

Kristoff quickly put that card back where he found it, too. No. Even if he and Anna were to one day…nope, not even then would he be able to give Anna that card with a straight face. They hadn't even gotten the chance to properly kiss like they had that night in her driveway again. Yes, he had kissed her on the lips many times since then, but they hadn't really had as much, ahem,  _privacy_ as he would have liked and the kisses were always short and sweet but they were leaving Kristoff  _very_ frustrated.

Kristoff finally found a card that was not overly sappy but still romantic enough. Satisfied that he now had everything, he went up to the florist counter to pick up the flowers and pay for the card and candy. There. It was all over.

But as Kristoff made a beeline for the exit, who should come in the doors but  _Olaf,_ the self-proclaimed love expert. The short, pale man stopped short at the sight of Kristoff and grinned knowingly at him. "What'cha got there, Kristoff?" he asked.

"Flowers," Kristoff grumbled.

"And  _why_ do you have flowers?"

Kristoff glared at him. "They make me feel pretty. Why do you think I have flowers?"

"What else you got? What else you got?" Olaf reached for the plastic bag he was carrying in his free hand. Kristoff held it away from him.

"It's for Anna, not you," he scolded the smaller man. "And don't tell her you saw me with this stuff."

Olaf gasped.  _"Kristoff,"_ he admonished. "Why would I  _ruin_ a surprise _?_  Especially a Valentine's Day surprise! Your secret's safe with me. Oh, and by the way?" Olaf called to Kristoff as the latter began to walk away. "Anna's  _really_ looking forward to your date!"

* * *

Anna bit her lip, glancing shyly over her menu at Kristoff. The warm atmospheric glow of candlelight softened his features. He cleaned up rather nicely, she had to admit. His normally shaggy blond hair had been combed meticulously and his face was smooth and free of stubble. And he had even put on a  _tie._ This was now a total of two times that Anna had seen him wearing a tie. She  _liked_ it.

Kristoff's reaction to  _her_ appearance had been a pretty nice one, too. He had been taken aback for a few moments before kissing her. It had started out as a simple peck, but he had lingered for a little too long and it still left Anna frustrated to this moment.

Not only did he clean up nice, but he sure could pick a romantic restaurant for Valentine's Day.  _Tony's_  was a quaint little Italian restaurant tucked away in Arendelle. If you blinked, you'd miss it. The owner was going around from table to table, making sure everything was alright and saying things that made people either laugh or blush and Anna vaguely wondered what he might say when he got to theirtable.

"Decided on anything yet?" Kristoff asked. Anna shook her head.

"Sorry," she apologized. "Just trying to figure out what I could eat and  _not_ make a huge mess all over myself."

"Nobody said you had to be sorry." Kristoff smiled warmly at her. "I like your dress by the way. It's very…dress-like and…pink…I don't know anything about dresses besides that you look good in them."

Anna giggled and bit her lip. "Well…I don't know that much about ties but…you look good in that one."

The waiter came up to their table then, offering them wine. One day, maybe, she and Kristoff would be able to go out on Valentine's Day and enjoy a glass of wine together, but she was still a little less than a month shy of her nineteenth birthday. Kristoff didn't seem to mind, though, and he stuck to water with her.

"Ever been here before?" Anna asked Kristoff after they'd finally placed their food orders.

"Me?" Kristoff pointed to himself. "No. My parents come here once in a blue moon to celebrate their anniversary but I haven't really had a reason to come here until, well…now." Anna blushed.

"Keep talking like that and I just might have to kiss you," Anna warned.

Kristoff shrugged nonchalantly. "Well it is Valentine's Day, so I think I'll let you get away with it."

Anna smiled and they both began to lean toward each other. Their eyes slipped shut and his lips were ghosting over hers.

_"Look at the beautiful young couple!"_  a voice boomed. Anna and Kristoff jumped and knocked their heads together violently. Reeling back, Anna nearly knocked over her water glass all over the table. Both she and Kristoff winced as they rubbed the sore spots on their heads and looked up toward the intruder. The owner, Tony, had finally made his way to their table. He was a big, mustachioed man, donning an apron that Anna hoped was covered in splotches of tomato sauce.

"You two look  _wonderful_  together!" Tony clapped Kristoff on the back, making him grunt and wince in pain. Anna sipped at her water. "This is your girlfriend, yes?"

"Yes," Kristoff said immediately. Anna choked and sputtered on a large gulp of water. Did Kristoff- _cough! hack!-_ just call her- _gasp!-_ his girlfriend? She had been planning on asking him about this over dinner, but he had just gone and dropped the ball. Okay.  _Okay._ She was his girlfriend. She was  _Kristoff's_ girlfriend. That made Kristoff her boyfriend. Her  _boyfriend._ Her Facebook status would now say  _Anna Strand is in a relationship with Kristoff Bjorgman._

"Wrong pipe," Anna explained hastily to a very concerned Tony and Kristoff. "I'm fine." She cautiously sipped at her water again while Tony made promises that their food would be out soon and he would bring them more bread while they waited.

Anna grinned at Kristoff the moment Tony walked away from their table. He swallowed, tugging at the collar of his shirt. "So…I meant to ask you before I blurted that out to Tony…" he began. Anna leaned over and kissed him, effectively silencing him.

"I'm your girlfriend, huh?" Anna asked teasingly as she pulled away.

Kristoff cleared his throat. "Well, that all depends on if  _you_ want to be. Or if you don't mind having me be your, you know,  _boyfriend._ "

Anna kissed him again, lingering for just a little bit longer this time, smiling against his lips. "You really want to do this, then? You really want to make this thing official?"

"Well,  _yeah,_ " Kristoff said. He rubbed the back of his neck as he blushed. "I-I mean I like you. I  _really_ like you and we work pretty well together…and I…kind of thought that it...already was…you know…official. Well, I mean I was  _hoping_ that's how you saw this, too. It would be okay if you didn't-" Anna kissed him a third time, pressing her lips harder to his and lingering even longer than the last time. Kristoff blinked slowly at her as she pulled away.

"Right. I'll shut up, then. What are you doing?"

Anna had pulled her phone out of her purse. "Telling Elsa she was wrong. She thought you were going to blurt out something about being boyfriend and girlfriend  _much_ later into the evening."

She was busy sending a quick text to Elsa, so she wasn't looking at Kristoff, but Anna knew that he was pretending to pout at her right now. "Elsa has that little faith in me?" he asked incredulously. "Seriously, did she think I was gonna mention it as I dropped you off later tonight?" Anna said nothing. "Wait, she seriously thought that?"

"…maybe," Anna finally said.

* * *

Long after dinner is over, Kristoff is lying next to Anna on the couch in her living room as their fifth episode of  _The Office_ in a row comes on Netflix. Anna swore that she wasn't tired at all and she could stay up to watch another one. And another. She fell asleep two episodes ago.

She's curled up against him, a blanket draped over her and his arm is wrapped around her. He's tempted to stroke his hand up and down her arm, but he's worried even the gentlest touch will wake her.

The few remains of the slice of carrot cake Anna got him are waiting for him in her massive refrigerator whenever he finally decides to leave. But he doesn't want to go yet.

Anna sighed in her sleep and Kristoff smiled warmly down at her. She was his girlfriend. His  _girlfriend._ The girlfriend he loved to hang out with; the girlfriend whom he braved the Valentine's Day section of the store for; the girlfriend who was responsible for his currently tousled hair and loosened tie.

It's a good thing, Kristoff muses, that Anna's parents are out of town and Elsa's working at the rink. The last thing he had needed was for any of them to walk in on the two of them while Anna bit and sucked at his bottom lip and while he had to use all his will power  _not_ to try and touch Anna anywhere but her waist, her back, her arms, her shoulders, her face…he wanted to. Boy, did he want to. But it was still early in their relationship, he was inexperienced (hell, they  _both_ were) and Anna hadn't given him the okay yet.

And he was beyond terrified of screwing all this up. A new relationship was like skating on thin ice. But Anna was worth every minute of it. Kristoff could only hope that she felt the same way about him.

He heard the front door unlock and shut. Kristoff checked the time on his phone, noting that the rink was closed by now and that that must be Elsa. Sure enough, Elsa came padding into the living room a few minutes later, changed from her normal work shirt to some pajamas.

"The date went alright?" Elsa asked, sinking down into a plush armchair.

Kristoff nodded and softly replied "Yeah." Anna squirmed a bit in her sleep and, feeling daring, Kristoff very quickly pressed a soft kiss to her hair. Anna settled herself further into Kristoff's side before stilling again.

Elsa covered her mouth to hide her laughter. "You've-um…you've got some…" she gestured to her mouth. Still giggling she grabbed the box of tissues from the coffee table and held them out to Kristoff. He took a few and wiped around his mouth. He looked down at the tissue and gasped in horror. It had come away pink. Anna's lipstick was all over him. He furiously wiped it off, simultaneously mortified that Elsa had seen him like that and slightly annoyed at Anna for not telling him about it.

"Everything go alright tonight?" Kristoff asked, eager to change the subject.

"Everything went great," Elsa sighed, sinking down even further into the armchair. "Olaf had a  _ball,_ as usual. He is the self-proclaimed love expert, after all. No major mishaps. Two people were a little short on their till but other than that…" Elsa shrugged, then nodded toward the television. "What episode?"

" _The Job Fair_ ," Kristoff answered. "Next one is Toby's going away party."

Elsa grinned as she grabbed a book off the coffee table. "That one's my  _favorite._ You mind if I-?"

"It's your house. Doing some light reading?" The book she was currently holding could rival the size of some of his textbooks.

"Design and architecture has always been a little side interest of mine," Elsa admitted as she began to thumb through the pages. "It's a welcome break from all the tedious work I have to do for my degree. I can go from the tedious, long-winded passages of law to pretty and colorful pictures. We all need something fun to break up the monotony of our lives; something to look forward to and bring a smile to your face. I have my design books, you…well a few months ago I would have said you had ice but I'm certain that Anna's taken over that for you."

Kristoff frowned and adjusted his position on the couch. Anna mumbled a few sleepy protests. "Why is everyone determined to make me out to be some romantic softie?" he asked, echoing Anna's words from their first date. He stroked a hand through Anna's soft hair; his frown quickly traded itself in for a soft smile.

Elsa scoffed. "Please. You were  _always_ a romantic softie. You just needed Anna to come along and bring out that side to you. And you love it."


	6. Apartments and Codes

There was an air of both tension and excitement around the ice rink. Many of the employees are students of Arendelle University and the spring semester is quickly coming to a close and the threat of final exams is looming over their heads. Kristoff himself was lucky enough to have his exams on the first two days of finals week, letting him relax and pick up more hours at the rink so Elsa can spend more time stressing out about her own finals.

"How much  _longer?"_  Anna grumbles. She's slumped over in a chair, her head resting on Kristoff's desk. Chuckling Kristoff reaches over and strokes her hair.

"Just a few more minutes," he promises.

"You said that a few minutes ago!" Anna complains.

Kristoff sighed. Anna tended to get a little irritable when she was tired. On top of that, it had been several hours since her break which meant she hadn't had dinner yet. It was a good thing that he was a quick learner when it came to being Anna's boyfriend and had prepared for moments like these.

He grabbed his keys and unlocked a drawer of his desk, grabbing a few pieces of chocolate from inside. If he didn't keep this drawer locked, he knew Anna would have raided the drawer a long time ago. That would have defeated the purpose of having his personal Emergency Anna Chocolate Supply.

Anna's eyes lit up when she spied the chocolate and she finally picked her head up off the desk with a grin. "You are the best boyfriend  _ever_ ," Anna decided, unwrapping the first piece and popping it in her mouth.

Kristoff chuckled. "The best boyfriend ever will be done in just a minute as soon as I input these numbers. We had a few people short on their till today."

Anna pouted. "Don't remind me," she said around a mouth full of chocolate.

"Come on, now. It was only a dollar," Kristoff said sympathetically. Anna was normally perfect on her till, despite her deep hatred for anything and everything mathematical. For her to be short on her till was unusual but it's not like it hadn't happened before. It happened to  _everybody._

"But I didn't get a  _sticker_ ," Anna reminded him. Every time someone was perfect on their till, they got a sticker on a big chart in Elsa's office. The person with the most stickers at the end of each month would get some sort of prize. Anna could care less about the prize, though. She just wanted the stickers.

Kristoff smiled as he finally saved his work and shut down the computer. "Would it make you feel better if I bought you a whole book of stickers?" he asked as he pulled on his jacket.

"It wouldn't be the same," Anna said, shaking her head sadly.

"Okay, we need to get some food in you now," Kristoff decided. Elsa and Anna were usually each other's rides, but Elsa had already left and Kristoff was more than happy to bring Anna home. That just meant he got to spend more time with her.

Leaving the ice rink instantly put Anna in a much better mood and she kept standing up on her toes to kiss Kristoff. "You're making it very difficult to walk to the truck, here," Kristoff told her. Anna responded by kissing him again. He finally stopped in the middle of the empty parking lot and leaned down to kiss her, wrapping his arms around her. Anna threw her arms up around his neck, eagerly kissing him back and pressing herself up against him and working her tongue into his mouth. He held her tighter to him and moved one of his hands to the back of her head, his fingers threading slightly through her hair. Anna hummed contentedly in the back of her throat. Kristoff took her bottom lip in between his teeth, biting down on it and gently flicking his tongue across it. Where this particular technique had a rather pleasant effect on him, Anna's reaction was very different. She'd become weak at the knees in an instant. Literally, her knees would buckle and shivers would rack through her body. Seeing her react in that way was, Kristoff had to admit, quite the confidence boost.

Chuckling as Anna nearly collapsed against him, he pulled his lips away from hers and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. "Ready to get food yet?" he asked, still keeping his arms wrapped around her for support.

Anna swallowed. "Food. Yes. Food good," she mumbled inarticulately.

Kristoff helped her up into the truck before getting in on his side and taking Anna off in search of food. "When's your last final?"

"Friday," Anna sighed. "And it's  _math_ ," she complained. "Hey, do you think we can do something once finals are officially over? You know, to celebrate surviving the semester?"

Kristoff wisely decided not to remind her that he was already done with his finals. "Sure. Did you have anything in mind?"

"Ask me after I get food. I can't think on an empty stomach."

Kristoff was about to consent to that when an idea struck him. "Hey, I have an idea," he said suddenly. "I just remembered that you haven't seen my apartment yet. I get off early on Friday so you could come over that night. We'll watch a movie and I can finally show off my culinary skills to you." Kristoff laughed and glanced over at Anna. Huh. That was an odd expression.

"Anna?" he asked cautiously. She stayed silent. "I…I actually  _can_ cook some stuff, you know." Anna's expression turned to a full on grimace. "I promise I won't be feeding you Ramen noodles and Hot Pockets. I was actually thinking Pizza Rolls and french fries-"

_"I'm not ready for it yet!"_ Anna suddenly blurted out. She looked like she might be feeling sick. Kristoff began scanning the road for good places he might need to do an emergency stop. He loved Anna, but he was drawing the line at cleaning her puke out of his truck.

"I…I was kidding…" Kristoff said slowly. "But if you're that afraid of my cooking we can always order something to go-"

_"No!"_ Anna hissed defensively.  _"No! I just told you I'm not ready for it yet!"_

Kristoff was genuinely confused now by Anna's sudden change in behavior. Maybe he should have grabbed more chocolate for her? He knew enough about girls to know that there were certain times they consumed chocolate more than others. "Not ready for…what? For my cooking?"

Anna scoffed. "Well,  _fine,_ if  _that's_ what you're going to call it, then I'm not ready for your… _cooking._ " Fed up, Kristoff pulled off the road into the parking lot of a fast food place.

"Okay, I officially think we're talking about two different things here," Kristoff decided. He turned off his truck and unbuckled his seat belt so he could turn fully toward Anna. She looked slightly panicked and had drawn her knees up to her chest, hugging them close to her. "Anna…why are you so freaked out about this?" he asked her gently. "All I did was ask if you wanted to see my apartment."

Anna rolled her eyes. "Oh, come  _on,_ Kristoff," she said, sounding impatient. "I wasn't born  _yesterday._ "

"…I wasn't implying that you were?"

"I'm not  _completely_ naïve! I know what you're  _really_ saying."

Kristoff  _definitely_ should have grabbed more chocolate. Maybe he would get her a chocolate milkshake once they finally grabbed a bite to eat. But how fast they got dinner all depended on how quickly he could resolve this mess with Anna.

"What am I supposed to be saying?" Kristoff asked. He felt bewildered and he honestly wasn't trying to look at Anna like she was acting like a crazy person.

Anna rolled her eyes at him again. "All boys speak in code,  _Kristopher._ 'Coming over to see your apartment,'" Anna said, making air quotes around her words, "'your cooking', I'm not stupid, Kristoff. I  _know_ what that's code for and I told you, I'm not  _ready for it._ "

Forget the chocolate milkshake. He needed an entire chocolate shop by this point. Too bad they were all closed by now.

"Code?" he echoed incredulously. "What the hell kind of code is that supposed to be? What are you not ready-" And then the realization of what Anna was talking about hit him. "Oh.  _Oh._ Anna…when you say you're not ready for… _it…_ could you just clarify what  _it_  is supposed to be?"

Thanks to the light of the nearby lampposts, he could see Anna's face coloring to a bright shade of red.  _"It,"_ Anna squeaked. "Like, capital I  _It._ "

Oh. Well…this now made a lot more sense. Anna's outburst, her embarrassment…okay, wow, he needed to try and make this right now.

"First of all," Kristoff said gently "when I asked if you wanted to come see my apartment…I wasn't speaking in code. I was being literal."

Anna bit her lip. "Yes, well, I'm starting to get that  _now,_ " she mumbled into the sleeve of her sweater.

Kristoff smiled at her and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. "Secondly, I know you're not ready for It yet."

"How do you know  _that_?" Anna mumbled again, leaning a little into his touch.

"Because you can't say the actual  _word_ ," Kristoff points out. Sex. Anna thought he was going to try and jump the gun on  _sex._ They hadn't even hit second base yet, there was no way that either of them were ready for sex. "You're not ready,  _I'm_ not ready, but if we actually get there someday, we should be able to actually, you know, talk about It and  _not_ talk in code."

Anna was quiet for a few long moments. "Well…now I really  _do_ feel stupid," she grumbled, her eyes refusing to meet his. Kristoff had fixed one problem and now he had another.

"How about this," Kristoff began. He took one of Anna's hands in his, squeezing it gently. "How about instead of it just being you and me, you and Elsa both come over? We can order pizza or whatever food you're in the mood for and we can watch whatever movie you want.  _But not Mean Girls!_ " he added hastily when Anna's eyes lit up. He had already sat through that movie twice with her and he wasn't about to do it again. Unless she was like, sick or she needed cheering up or something.

Anna pouted.  _"Fine,"_  she allowed. Her mouth twitched up in a smile. "That actually sounds really nice."

Feeling confident that he had finally fixed all the problems with Anna, Kristoff kissed her, slowly feeling her release all the built up tension and relax against him. Well…he had fixed all but one problem.

Anna pushed away from him after a minute. "I'm still hungry," she reminded him.

* * *

Anna rapped on the door to 7A grinning excitedly. She was  _done_. She was  _done with finals_ and Elsa was done with finals and Kristoff had been done with finals for most of the week, that stinker. And now she got to see Kristoff's apartment, which was  _totally_ not code for It.

Sven barked on the other side of the door, eager to see who the visitors were. Anna and Elsa could hear Kristoff on the other side of the door, urging Sven to get back and be  _quiet._  The lock on the door clicked and Kristoff opened the door a moment later, bent awkwardly as he held on to Sven's collar. The Labrador Retriever himself was fighting against Kristoff, eager to get to these new and exciting people that would  _pet_ him and give him some attention.

"Hey," Kristoff grunted, smiling at the girls through his bangs. Anna and Elsa slipped inside the apartment, closing the door behind them.

"Hey, yourself," Anna said back. She reached down to scratch Sven behind the ears. The canine relaxed under her touch and wagged his tail happily. "So…this is the place?" It was definitely a bachelor pad. The decor was simple and functional, but it was still very Kristoff. At least he kept it clean…or he had cleaned it in preparation of their visit today.

"This is the place," Kristoff said, nodding. "That's the living room, that door there leads to the bedroom, which leads to the bathroom, and this is the kitchen, where I keep my take out menu drawer." Anna noticed as she looked over in the kitchen, that her picture was on the refrigerator. Kristoff handed Elsa the pile of takeout menus. Anna looked over at the living room, something hiding in the corner catching her attention.

"Anna, help us pick out the food," Elsa said as she sat down on a barstool at the kitchen counter. Anna ignored her sister and walked over to the mysterious item.  _No._ It  _couldn't be_. "Anna?"

"Kristoff," Anna said, ignoring her sister. "How long have we been dating?"

"Um…" Kristoff said nervously. "A couple of months now."

"And in the couple of months we've been dating you felt no need to tell me that you  _play the guitar?!"_ Anna pointed to the musical instrument partially hidden behind the couch. It was a  _guitar;_  a  _real guitar._ She had just thought Kristoff's hands felt so rough and calloused because he was a guy and it wasn't very  _macho_ for guys to use moisturizer.

Kristoff chuckled awkwardly. "It never came up. Besides, I knew the minute I told you you'd-"

"Can you play me something?" Anna interrupted him. Kristoff's face fell.

"-do that," he finished. "Maybe another time, okay?"

"Come on, Anna, I'm starving," Elsa pleaded. She gestured to the assortment of menus in front of her.

Anna began to pout. It wouldn't take long before Kristoff caved. If Elsa wasn't here she'd just kiss him and he'd cave even  _faster_ -

"Oh, hey, look," Kristoff said, pointing at a menu over Elsa's shoulders. "That's a great price for steamed broccoli-" Anna was shoving past him in the blink of an eye, muttering about disgusting vegetables from hell as she furiously thumbed through the menu. Kristoff dialed the restaurant for them once they finally decided on a menu which, despite Anna's complaints, did include an order of steamed broccoli.

Elsa wandered over to the living room, looking at a picture on an end table. "Anna," Elsa whispered, gesturing for Anna to come over to her. "Who are they?" she asked, pointing to the picture.

Anna smiled as she got a good look at the picture. "That's Kristoff's parents." She had told Elsa all about the Christmas party and especially about his parents. She had gone over to dinner at their house with Kristoff a few times since they had begun dating and they were always just as enthusiastic to see her as they were when they first met.

The picture had obviously been taken around the time of Kristoff's high school graduation, since he was still wearing the deep blue graduation gown. His enormous stature made his parents look absolutely miniscule next to him. The effect was nearly comical. But they just looked so  _proud_ of him in the photo and it was hard not to smile looking at it.

"Those are  _not_ his parents," Elsa said disbelievingly. She shook her head. "No  _way._ "

Anna was feeling a little uncomfortable. Okay…maybe she hadn't told Elsa  _everything_ about Kristoff's parents. "Elsa!" Anna implored. Kristoff was wrapping up the phone call and it was not a small apartment. He was bound to hear.

"I mean," Elsa continued, completely oblivious to Anna's  _shut up now_ vibes, "I guess there's… _something_  about his dad that…no he doesn't look like them at all."

_"Elsa!"_  Anna hissed.

"What?" Elsa asked innocently. Anna jerked her head at Kristoff. To her dismay, he had finished ordering the food and had  _definitely_ heard that last bit of the conversation. She winced.

"Sorry," she said to Kristoff. He shook his head.

"Anna, it's  _fine_ ," he assured her. Kristoff walked over to them and hugged Anna. She immediately felt better and relaxed into the hug. "That stuff doesn't bother me." He pulled away from Anna, but kept an arm around her as he turned to Elsa.

"I'm related to my dad," Kristoff explained, nodding at the picture, "but not my mom. Well, technically, my dad is my biological uncle. They adopted me when I was two. My biological mother got sick and passed away not long after my first birthday, my biological dad couldn't handle it and my mom and dad took me in. The end." Kristoff shrugged and looked down at Anna. "I told you that it doesn't bother me," he reminded her.

Kristoff had told her the story months ago. It had come up one way or another and he had been just as nonchalant about it then as he was now. Still, Anna knew that adoption was a sensitive topic, no matter how okay someone seemed with their adoptive status and she didn't want him to be forced about something that didn't really matter all too much to him anymore.

Elsa looked mortified. "I am  _so-_ I…I can't believe I just said all of that. I'm so sorry, Kristoff. I…I really just put my foot in my mouth."

"Welcome to my world," Anna deadpanned. Elsa finally cracked a smile. "Come on, new subject. Elsa, you have all the movies in your massive purse. Let's pick one." Despite Kristoff's protests from the other night, she had included  _Mean Girls_ in the selection. But because she was such a wonderful girlfriend and all, they all decided on a different movie that Kristoff could actually bear to sit through.

Not long after the food finally arrived (Kristoff and Elsa had practically wrestled each other in an attempt to get to the door and pay for food first) Elsa smiled knowingly at Anna.

"Have you told Kristoff your big news yet?" she asked. No, she hadn't. Kristoff looked at her curiously, swallowing a large mouthful of sesame chicken.

"What news?" he said curiously.

Anna grinned, biting her lip. "Well…" she began. She set down her chopsticks and took a deep breath. "I went to talk with the counselor about my schedule for the summer and fall and she was hounding me about how I need to choose a major and I can't put it off forever and so she sent me over to the Career Counseling Center and they were hounding me about the exact same thing…anyway…I finally got someone  _nice_ to talk to and we talked about my interests and classes and I have finally declared a major."

"Wow! That's great!" Kristoff said, looking genuinely proud of her. "What's your major going to be?"

Anna took a deep breath, let it out, and finally announced "Event Management. It's really a lot of stuff I love doing. I'll get to plan parties, conferences, weddings, book bands and caterers, and I'll get to work around a lot of people all the time."

"That sounds like you," Kristoff agreed, nodding. "Congratulations!"

"Finally decided on a major," Elsa teased. Both Elsa  _and_ her parents had been getting on to her for this for a while. At least it would finally stop. "And it's something you love."

"Took me a while to figure out," Anna admitted sheepishly. "Unlike  _this_ guy here who decided what he wanted to do in his junior year of high school." She backhanded his arm lightly and Kristoff held up his hands in mock surrender.

"Sorry that it didn't take me as long to figure out what I love to do." Kristoff chuckled and then turned to Elsa.

"What about you, Elsa? When did you figure out what you wanted to do?" he asked curiously. Elsa paled, which Anna thought was near impossible with how fair-skinned Elsa already was. Her lips pressed together and she began to squeeze the chopsticks until her knuckles turned white. Anna was worried that they would snap at any second.

"Well…" Elsa said, sounding very prim and proper even though Anna could tell that there were a million emotions and tons of tension boiling beneath the surface. "…I was always told for as long as I could remember that I'd make an  _excellent_ lawyer…" she began. Elsa froze and then suddenly slapped her chopsticks down on her plate, making Anna and Kristoff jump.

"Elsa…" Anna said quietly.

"I'm going on a quick walk," Elsa declared. She grabbed her purse and stormed out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her.

Kristoff blinked a few times, looking confused and a little scared. "Did…did I say something bad?"

"Oh, no, you didn't. It's fine. It's just-" Anna sighed. "Mom and Dad have kind of been…pressuring Elsa to start picking law schools and they've been fighting about it. It's just kind of a touchy subject at the moment."

Kristoff winced. "I didn't know."

"I understand. And Elsa does, too." Anna reached over to him and squeezed his hand to reassure him. Elsa wasn't gone for long, returning only a few minutes later in a much better mood. The rest of the night went on smoothly, the subject of school and majors being skillfully avoided as they finished their dinners and watched the movie. But Anna couldn't help noticing the far off, serious look Elsa kept getting on her face. Nor could she ignore that her eyes had looked rather red once she returned.


	7. New Plans and a Keychain

Despite Anna's initial hesitation over being in Kristoff's apartment, she finds herself a pretty frequent visitor there on her days off over the summer. The tension around her house is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Elsa's hardly coming out of her room anymore and her parents-whenever they're home-are not so subtly shoving brochures for law schools under her door. Anna doesn't say anything when she sees them going through the shredder in Elsa's office.

So Kristoff's apartment is a welcome escape and Kristoff is more than happy to let her escape there, wanting her to be as comfortable as possible. Today isn't so different from any other. The pretense of Anna needing help on her algebra homework was quickly abandoned for TV which in turn was quickly abandoned for a heated make out session on Kristoff's sofa.

Kristoff is almost like an entirely different person with her when they're alone. In public, he's shy and bashful. All they do is hold hands and occasionally he'll give and accept the smallest, shortest, and the most chaste of kisses on the cheek or forehead. But once they're all alone and behind closed and locked doors, Kristoff becomes much more open in his displays of affection, even as he remains somewhat hesitant, wanting to make sure that  _Anna_ is okay with everything before he moves forward.

Anna's straddling his lap as she deepens the kiss, eliciting a moan from the back of Kristoff's throat. One of his hands fist into the material of her tank top while the other is tangled in her hair. Anna's hands slide up his chest, marveling at how  _sculpted_ he feels underneath her touch. She knows that he works out and goes to the gym and he can pick her up like it's  _nothing_  but she relishes these moments where she and Kristoff have some privacy and she can feel the muscles for herself.

The thought of what Kristoff must look like without a shirt on flashes through her mind and Anna moans quietly at the mental image.

Kristoff breaks away from her and Anna begins to protest before he starts kissing up and down her neck, warm lips travelling gently over the surface of her skins so he doesn't leave a mark. Tilting her head, his lips travel up to her ear and carefully nips and sucks at her lobe, sending shudders racking through Anna's body. She can feel Kristoff smiling against her as his lips move back along her jaw and to her lips.

Anna's tank top has ridden up some and Kristoff's thumb is brushing against the exposed skin of her hip, making her tingle with anticipation. Was-was this it? This was happening? He was finally going to-

Kristoff broke away from her panting heavily. The fingers of one hand are stroking gently through her hair while the other still remains glued to her hip. He kisses her again and gently removes her from his lap. "Water," he says, as explanation. Anna tries to keep herself from looking disappointed as Kristoff pushes himself off the couch and walks over to his kitchen.

Her boyfriend is a gentle giant. He's a foot taller, seventy pounds heavier, and tends to scare people when they first met him. But he was in possession of a heart of gold and he was a big sweetheart and he was always, always,  _always_ extremely gentle and careful with her, sometimes treating her like she was made of glass.

And that was the source of her current frustration.

They always either sat up or had Anna on top whenever they made out. Anna wasn't sure  _exactly_ why Kristoff had an issue with being on top, but she had a feeling it had to do with him being so much larger than her and his constant worry over hurting her. That was going to have to change.

Kristoff also respected and agreed with her decision to wait on…It…and she was happy about that. But there was still other stuff for them to do. And she wanted to do that other stuff. She'd even worn her best bra today in the hopes that Kristoff would get the hint, but he hadn't. Honestly, how could he  _not_ get the hint? He was a  _guy_. There was no  _way_ he didn't look.

Looks like she was gonna have to try the direct approach.

"What gives?" Anna complained as Kristoff sat back down next to her. The blond looked confused, his arm still outstretched towards her to offer her a water bottle.

"If you wanted something else-" he began.

"Forget about the water." Anna took the bottle from him and put it down on the coffee table. "We've been official for  _quite_ a few months now."

"Five months in a couple of days," Kristoff amends. Anna was momentarily distracted by how sweet it was he remembered before shaking her head. No. She had started this conversation for a reason.

"We've been official for five months now and all we've ever done is make-out. I mean, I wore this top today with the specific intention of having you make a move-"

"Wait, what?"

"We haven't gotten to second base yet," Anna explains, exasperated. "Why haven't your hands been on top of these?" She gestures to her chest. Kristoff's eyes flicker down before flushing a furious shade of red.

"I-I….trying to be a gentleman here," Kristoff mumbles, rubbing the back of his neck. His eyes glanced at her chest once more before he stared down at his feet.

"Well,  _sir,_ this lady is telling you that you have her permission to grope her person," Anna says primly. Kristoff chuckles nervously. "If you're nervous about it, you can start over my shirt. It's not like I'm asking you to take off my bra, yet." But that didn't mean she wasn't  _going to._ One day.

Kristoff nods, finally looking up at her. Anna waits expectantly for him to make his move.

"Well, I'm not going to do it when you're looking!" Kristoff mutters, blushing again. Giggling, Anna climbs up on him, straddling his lap once more, capturing his lips with hers. She scratched her nails lightly along his scalp. Kristoff's hands are at her hips, rubbing circles with his thumbs.  _Come on,_ Anna urges him silently as their tongues slip back and forth.  _Move your hands up._  Anna pulls back to bite and suck at his lower lip for a moment before attacking his lips again with a renewed fervor.

She felt one of Kristoff's large hands tremble slightly as it ghosted up her hip, her waist, and finally came to a rest just below its destination. Anna kept kissing him, hoping to distract him some from what he was doing.

Slowly, his hand moves up and cups her breast through her clothes. Kristoff sucks in a breath and stills beneath her. Undeterred, Anna worked her lips against his, silently signaling him that this was  _okay_ and that she  _wanted this_.

Finally, his hand flexed and he grasped her breast.

A few minutes later, his other hand grasped at the other one while Anna was busy kissing her way up and down Kristoff's thick neck, secretly pleased when she felt the quick pulse beneath her lips.

"Hm…Kristoff?" Anna manages to mumble in between kisses.

"Hm?" Kristoff mumbles back as he kisses her back desperately while his hands still move across her front.

"You're," kiss "doing," kiss "a good job," another kiss, longer this time "but…"

Kristoff stops kissing her almost immediately and he looks at her, worried he did something wrong.

"Those are kind of attached to me," Anna reminds him, gesturing down to her chest where his hands are still resting. "Might want to be just a  _touch_ more gentle."

* * *

Kristoff dropped her off at her darkened house late that night. Her parents were out of town again and Elsa always went to bed early, so Anna hadn't been expecting anyone still up at such a late hour. However, there was a light knock at her bedroom door as she combed through her hair and she heard Elsa's muffled voice say "Anna?"

Anna skips over to her door immediately and threw it open. Elsa's hair was loose and flowing, a distinct departure from her usual ponytail or bun. Anna knew that Elsa had been working at the rink that day and she was normally dead tired after a shift, but here she was, looking wide awake and…happy. Elsa looked happy. Not stressed and angry and tired like she had been for months now, but happy.

"I didn't realize you were home," Elsa says, walking past Anna and plopping down on her bed.

"I thought you were asleep, so I activated my stealthy ninja mode. I thought you'd be asleep by now."

Elsa shakes her head, smiling. "No. I will soon, but I was wanted to wait up for you. I have some news to tell you. It's really big and exciting and it's kind of scary, but…you're the first one I wanted to tell it to." Elsa took a deep breath, grinned.

"I'm taking off of school for a year," Elsa finally announces. Anna dropped her hairbrush in shock.

"Wait, what?" she says. "Um…may I ask why?" Anna sank down on her mattress next to Elsa. She was dropping out of school for a year. A  _year._ Elsa, the straight A, 4.0 GPA, Ivy League material  _Elsa_ , was quitting school. For a year. Just for a year. But a  _year._

"Well, I had a  _long_ talk with a counselor today and I finally came to the conclusion that I do  _not_ want to be a lawyer. I never wanted to be a lawyer. It was always something mom and dad wanted for me and I went along with it. I can't believe I wasted this much of my college career on a major I hate."

"Well," Anna said, patting Elsa on the back "if you were unhappy then it's good that you're not doing that degree anymore. You should do something that makes you happy. What are you going to change your degree to, though?"

"I don't know!" And for the first time in her life, Anna saw Elsa be  _happy_ to not know something. This was…different. "I have no clue what I want to do, but I know that if I take a step back, relax, breathe, I'll figure it out. I am going back to school-I just want to make that clear because you looked a little panicked-"

"Pft! Me? Panicked? Okay, maybe a little," Anna admitted. Okay, she was beginning to wrap her head around this. Elsa was dropping out of school for a little while. And if this was what she needed to do, then that was her decision. "What are you going to do with your year off?"

"I'll work at the rink like always," Elsa said, shrugging. "I can give Georgia and Keefe some more opportunities to have days off together. I could even travel somewhere. I have plenty of money saved up. This will be good for me."

But Anna couldn't stop one worry from nagging at the back of her mind. "How are you going to tell mom and dad?" Elsa's face fell for just a moment.

"I don't know," she admitted quietly. "But I've already made all the arrangements to take the year off and everything's finalized. There's nothing they can really do about it. I'm an adult and this was my decision."

And Anna respected that and knew her parents would ultimately respect that, too.

She hoped.

Anna was still debating when she was drifting off to sleep whether or not she should be around for support when her sister told her parents, or run away scared to Kristoff's.

* * *

The tension around the Strand house had exploded on the return of Anna and Elsa's parents. The passive aggressiveness had faded away into full blown arguments the moment Elsa gave them the news and Anna could never get away from them enough. Home life was taking enough of a toll on her that she had been short on her till twice that week. And  _Hans_ had come by her register while she was on shift to bug her one or two times. Ugh. Why couldn't he do something to get himself  _fired_ already?

Anna's dozing off on the couch in Kristoff's living room one night. Sven has given up on any and all attempts to get Anna to pet him and is snoring away on his own pillow in the corner.

Kristoff shakes her shoulder gently and Anna ignores it.

_"Anna,"_ he whispers. She's going to ignore that, too.

_"Anna,"_ he says again, louder this time. Does he have to be so loud? He's making her whole "ignore it" plan very difficult.

"It's getting late," Kristoff reminds her. "I need to take you home now."

Anna groans, buries her face into his chest. "No. No you don't."

"Yes, I do."

"I like it better here."

Kristoff rubs a hand up and down her back and kisses the top of her head. "I know. But you still have to go home now." Anna blinks sleepily for a few moments before climbing up into Kristoff's lap and collapsing against him, tucking her head underneath his chin.

"Can't go anywhere now," Anna mumbles as Kristoff wraps his arms around her. "I've got you pinned down."

There is a beat of silence before Kristoff easily stands up, carrying her like she weighs nothing. Which, to Kristoff, that is probably exactly the case. "Well, that's disappointing," Anna says as Kristoff sets her down gently on her feet. "But they're probably asleep by now. Which means I don't get to walk in on another argument or have my parents come and corner me and telling me I need to get Elsa to see sense." Anna sighs heavily watching Kristoff tug on his shoes. "Sorry if I'm over here too much. I can…I can stop doing that…"

Kristoff pauses, deep in thought, before he walks into his bedroom. "Just a second…" he says to her. Anna puts on her own sandals and grabs her purse in the few moments before Kristoff emerges from his bedroom again, looking nervous.

"I, uh…" he clears his throat. "I know that things aren't exactly… _great…_ right now, you know, with your family. And…you just haven't been yourself because of it all…and you can't always escape here because sometimes I'm at work when you aren't…" Anna notices that his hand is held behind his back as he struggles for words.

"Kristoff?" Anna asks cautiously. Kristoff snaps out of it and walks forward. He grabs one of her hands and places a key in her palm.

Not just any key.

A key to his apartment.

"You can come over any time you want," Kristoff says quickly, blushing intensely as Anna turns the key over in her hand. "Even if I'm still at work. Just, you know, text or call to let me know. I always have plenty of food and I know Sven could use the company. Not that I'm giving this to you to be a dog sitter. I'm giving it to you because I like having who year. I mean hear you. Imean  _you here._  And I like seeing you happy and…happy Anna has kind of been in short supply lately."

Anna gives him a watery smile, sniffles, and flings herself onto him, gripping him tight as she hugs him and he hugs her back.

_"Thank you,"_ Anna whispers.

Kristoff's breath is warm against her and she can feel him smiling into her neck. This moment was so big and small at the same time and just so perfect and wonderful…and it is this moment where Anna finally comes to a big realization in her relationship with Kristoff.

She loves him.


	8. The Borrowed Shirt

Anna's week wasn't going so well.

She had slept through her alarm clock twice, she had forgotten to study for a test until the last minute (she hadn't even looked at the grade yet, she was too afraid of what it said), she'd had to cover two of her coworker's shifts, and now Elsa had decided that she was going to repaint and redesign her room for the  _third time_ in  _two months_  and Anna had slept curled up on the floor by her open window so that her brain cells wouldn't be killed by the fumes that still seemed to linger no matter how many fans were blasted and how many windows and doors were opened.

So when Anna woke up late again that morning, she decided enough was enough and she needed some peace and quiet. As she threw things into her backpack and tried to ignore the fact that she was about to go to her classes without first taking a shower, she quickly texted Kristoff.

_(Message): I'm going to your apartment after my classes are over._

_(Message): Need some peace and quiet._

_(Message): Please tell me that you have something besides carrots in your fridge._

Anna's phone buzzed as she shoved a change of clothes, her makeup and toiletries into a duffle bag.

_(Message): You go ahead and do that. You need it._

_(Message): I always have food for you around. Just bought some cookies actually since you polished off the last of them._

_(Message): I'll be home by 5:00._

Kristoff had given her a key to his apartment and told her she was free to come by whenever she needed to, whether he was there or not. Anna had really appreciated and loved the gesture, but hadn't needed to use the key yet. Now, however, she could really use the peace and quiet of an apartment she knew would be uninhabited for a couple of hours while Kristoff was at work.

Well…uninhabited by nobody but herself and a very excitable Chocolate Lab.

"Hey, Sven!" Anna squealed as Sven skidded across the floor in his haste to meet her at the door. Her classes had been a drag as usual, but she was already in a better mood thanks to Kristoff's adorable (and Anna didn't care if he thought that term wasn't manly because it was  _true_ ) overgrown puppy.

"It's good to see you, too! Who's a good doggy? Who's a good doggy?" Anna cooed as she scratched up and down Sven's back. She patted him firmly before pushing herself back off the ground and walking into the living room, dropping her bags onto the floor and collapsing onto the couch. Sighing tiredly, Anna's eyes slipped closed.

And then they snapped open.

She was in Kristoff's apartment.

She was in Kristoff's apartment  _alone._

She was alone in Kristoff's apartment and Kristoff was  _not here._

She had never been alone in  _anybody's_ home…at least not for an extended period of time like this.

Kristoff wouldn't be home for another two hours and she was all alone with nobody else around.

"I could do  _anything_ ," Anna realizes. She turns to Sven. "I'm all alone and I could do anything!" she tells the canine excitedly. "I could…I could walk around here  _naked_ and nobody would see except for Kristoff because this is his apartment and so obviously he has a key. Bad idea. Wait…has Kristoff been naked in here? I mean, obviously he has to be naked to take showers but has he ever like walked around without anything…I should really stop thinking about my boyfriend naked. Not that it's a bad thing to think of my boyfriend naked. I'm sure he looks just fine…you know…when he's naked…I should stop saying the word naked…shouldn't I?"

In answer, Sven runs over to the door and grabs his leash off the hook, before running back to Anna, his tail wagging in excitement.

"Does somebody want to go out on a walk?" Anna cooed, scratching his head. Sven dropped the leash in her lap and barked. "Alright, alright. Calm down." Obviously Sven needed a walk and Kristoff wouldn't be home for a while. Besides, the fresh air could do her some good before she finally got around to taking that shower.

* * *

Taking Sven for a walk, it turns out, was a horrible decision on Anna's part. She underestimated the strength of the excitable dog. She completely forgot about the rain from last night and that morning and how much  _mud_ there was everywhere.

She forgot that Sven loved to chase squirrels.

Anna went face first in a puddle of mud when Sven lunged for the squirrel and she lost her grip on the leash. He came trotting back to her a few moments later and rolled around next to her in the mud.

 _"No, SVEN! NO!"_ Anna cried. She had just been trying to do something  _nice_ for Kristoff and Sven. She'd even thought that the walk would be  _relaxing._  Now before she could even think about giving herself a shower, she was going to have to get Sven clean.

Sven seemed to enjoy the bath immensely, but Anna felt weary and exhausted, she smelled, she was caked in mud, and she didn't even want to  _look_ at the clock. If she knew how close Kristoff was to being home, she'd panic.

"Alright, Sven," Anna sighed as she finished towel drying him. "You go," she told him, motioning to the open door. "I'll just…" Anna dropped the towel on the ground as she got a good look at the tub. "…clean the bath…" Sven happily trotted out of the room, not realizing the distress he was causing his owner's girlfriend.

Kristoff's cleaning supplies weren't  _too_ hard to find, but she knew the clock was ticking and she knew that her chances of even  _trying_ to get herself cleaned up before Kristoff came back were dwindling. The best she'd managed was cleaning the mud off her face, but the rest of her…she looked awful, she felt awful, she  _smelled_ awful.

And there were still the muddy foot prints and paw prints that she had to mop up trailing from the front door to the bathroom door.

Anna collapsed on to Kristoff's bathroom floor and started crying her eyes out from exhaustion before you could say  _snowman._ She didn't care anymore, quite frankly. There was only so much one person could take before they just snapped and Anna, as she gasped for air between her sobs, was pretty sure she just had.

The click of a lock sounded nearby.  _Great._ Kristoff was back and she was a mess and she had made a mess of his bathroom and his dog all in a very short amount of time. He was going to make her hand her key back and never come back again.

"Anna?" Kristoff called out. "I'm…did you give Sven a bath?" Anna cries harder and she hears stuff dropping and running footsteps before Kristoff bursts through the open door of the bathroom, looking worried at first and then baffled. Anna ducks her head again, but she can almost hear the gears clicking in Kristoff's head as he looks at her, the bathroom, the discarded towels…

Oh, God, this is so embarrassing. She hasn't cried in front of Kristoff since…she's never cried in front of Kristoff. She's never cried in front of Kristoff. This is her first time crying in front of Kristoff and she looks  _awful._

"You, uh…you want to tell me what happened?" Kristofff asks nervously. Anna's forced to look up as he gently pulls her up to a standing position. Anna takes a deep, shuddering breath and then the whole story starts spilling out of her.

_"I took Sven for a walk and he chased after a squirrel and I wasn't paying attention so I didn't tell him to heel in time and I got yanked after him and I accidentally let go of the leash and I fell in the mud and then Sven started rolling around in the mud so I had to give him a bath first but then the bathtub looked like a mess so I had to clean it up and I didn't get to shower this morning so I haven't showered since yesterday morning and I smell awful and I look awful and my house smells awful because Elsa keeps repainting her room and I-I-I-"_

"Hey! Breathe!" Kristoff says, looking panicky. "Everything's gonna be okay, alright? Just take a minute. You really took Sven out for a walk by yourself?"

Anna nods, wiping away at the tears streaming down her face. "I-I thought it- _hic_ -it'd be- _hic_ -I wanted t- _hic_ -to do something- _hic_ \- nice for you. And I just made a mess."

"Sven made the mess," Kristoff corrects her gently. "Maybe I won't give him carrots with his dinner tonight so he learns his lesson." Anna gives a shaky laugh between her quieting sobs. "You just…you just relax, okay? You said you wanted to take a shower? Did you have a change of clothes or…?"

Anna swallows and nods. "In my duffle bag. In the living room."

"I'll get that for you. And a fresh towel. Anything else you need?"

Anna wishes she could just kiss Kristoff right now, but she's still pretty gross. But he's being so  _sweet_. "A hug," Anna says, laughing. "But, um, I think I'll have to take a rain check on that until after my sho-" Kristoff hugs her immediately, seeming not to care that he's getting mud all over his shirt. Anna sighs contentedly, relaxing into his embrace and finally the tension is starting to wear away.

It's moments like these where Anna is dangerously close to finally admitting that she loves him. She wants to say it and she  _really_ hopes that Kristoff feels the same way and will say it back but…no. Not the right time. They'll get there eventually.

Kristoff finally lets go of her and, barely glancing down at his shirt and the mud on his arms, he shrugs before pulling the shirt off of him easily. Anna's sure her eyes are about to bug out of her head as Kristoff walks around her and turns on the shower head, leaning awkwardly over the edge of the tub to wash away the mud. She  _knew_ that Kristoff went to the gym, she  _knew_ that he was strong, but seeing all the muscles…holy… _shit._  His chest was just as well sculpted as she had suspected it to be AND he had a  _six pack._

Kristoff Bjorgman…her boyfriend, Kristoff Bjorgman…was hot.

If any other girls caught wind of this, she'd have to beat them off with a stick.

Kristoff rinsed off the soap and dried himself off with towel still on the rack before bending down and picking up Sven's towel from the floor. Anna stared down at her toes. If he saw how much she was blushing now, she would  _never_ hear the end of it. "Be right back," he promised. He closed the door mostly behind him, still leaving a sizeable gap.

Big enough of a gap for Anna to peek through.

She watched Kristoff walk over to his wooden dresser and search through the drawers, pulling out some clothing. Then his hands went to his belt buckle. Anna's eyes went wide.

She  _really_ shouldn't be watching.

Kristoff's hands had undone the buckle and he was busy pulling the belt back through the loops.

 _She really shouldn't be watching_.

Then Kristoff started undoing the button and zipper of his pants. Anna looked away for just a second before resolving to peek through the crack in the door again. The rules were different for boys and girls, anyway. Maybe that was hypocritical of her but there had been one thing she had been curious about with Kristoff for a long time now and she couldn't bring herself to ask.

Boxers, briefs, or the hybrid of  _boxer briefs._

Kristoff shoved down his pants, letting them drop to the floor before he stepped out of them and Anna bit down on her hand to keep herself from squealing and giving it away that she was  _spying._

Boxers.

And he looked  _good_ in them.

Anna scurried quietly away from the door and waited at the edge of the bathtub, trying not to look guilty and breathing a little too heavily. Maybe she shouldn't have spied; curiosity had killed the cat, after all. But, in her opinion, it had been worth it. Now the thought of doing certain things with Kristoff were beginning to seem less terrifying.

Kristoff knocks gently on the bathroom door, breaking her train of thought. "Anna?" he calls out.

"I'm still fully clothed," Anna assures him.  _But I wish you kind of weren't,_ she adds mentally to herself as Kristoff comes into the bathroom. He's wearing a t-shirt and gym shorts and the mental image of Kristoff bench pressing a huge weight like it's nothing even with sweat dripping down his brow flashes through her mind and - _unf-_ she needed an excuse to get him shirtless again.

"Here," Kristoff hands her the towel and drops the duffle bag by her feet. "Anything else?" he asks as Anna digs through her bag. Oh no. Oh,  _no, no, no._ Why is everything going wrong today?

Anna sighs heavily. "I forgot to pack an extra shirt."

Kristoff chuckles and bends down, capturing her lips with his. Images of Kristoff in nothing but his underwear are still running around in her head and she kisses him back as passionately as she can without jumping up and hooking her legs around him and telling him to take her to the bedroom and  _whoa, where are these thoughts coming from?_ She's still completely gross looking and Kristoff still hasn't ventured his hands underneath her shirt or down her shorts.

Anna finally breaks away, panting slightly. Even Kristoff looks surprised. "Easy fix," he pants, straightening up again and leaving the bathroom. He came back a moment later with a t-shirt from his drawer. He gives her another quick kiss before leaving the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

 _So,_ Anna thinks as she strips off her mud-caked clothes,  _things didn't go exactly according to plan today._ But that didn't really matter anymore. With a few reassuring words, a hug and a kiss he made everything better.

Anna emerges from the bathroom a little later, scrubbed clean, wet hair tied back in a messy bun, and Kristoff's shirt hanging all the way down to her knees and slipping off her shoulder. Sven is lounging on his pillow in the corner, looking very guilty and despondent and looking so pathetic, Anna couldn't help but forgive the poor pooch already. Kristoff is busy stirring a pot on the stove, humming to himself. He doesn't notice Anna until she clears her throat.

"Do you have any plastic bags for me to stick my muddy clothes in?" Anna asks, holding them up for him to see.

"Uh…" Kristoff says. His eyes flicker up and down her figure and she swears she seems him gulp. "A-actually I was waiting until you were done to start a load of laundry. So you can throw them in the washer and hit start." Anna shuffles over to the closet doors that normally concealed his washer and dryer and did as he asked. She hopes the stains would come out of that shirt. It was one of her favorites

"What'cha making?" Anna skips over to Kristoff and hugs him around his middle, pressing a kiss to his back before stepping back and away from him again. She knew that she was a potential distraction and didn't want him to burn himself because of her.

"J-just, uh…nothing fancy," Kristoff says. "Just some pasta. I thought that you'd like it and it can last me a couple days and I'm sorry I have a potentially stupid question." The blond turns to face her, his face completely red and Anna was mostly certain it had nothing to do with the steam.

Kristoff's eyes flicker down to her bare legs, then back up to her face and he inhales deeply.

 _"Areyouwearingshorts?"_  he mutters quickly. What? Oh.  _Oh._ Well, now she could understand why he was blushing so much.

Anna giggles. "Yep." She lifts up the hem of Kristoff's shirt enough to expose the shorts she was wearing and part of her bare stomach. Kristoff gulps again and Anna grins mischievously. "But I doubt that you'd  _mind_ all too much if I  _wasn't_ wearing any shorts right now."

Kristoff turned back to the stove, stirring the pasta again. "Dinner will be ready in just a minute," he tells her, voice sounding a little strangled. Anna creeps up behind him and slips a hand under his shirt, her fingers lightly brushing against the hair of his stomach. Kristoff sucks in a breath and she feels his muscles tense as she lightly scratches up and down.

 _"You're changing the subject,_ " Anna says teasingly. She kisses his back again.

"Yes, I am," Kristoff manages to choke out. Anna presses her face into his back to hide her giggles. Seeing him all flustered over her appearance so soon after he had made  _her_ feel flustered (even if he didn't know she had been spying) was pretty satisfying and it was making her feel…a little more daring than usual.

Yeah…his shirt still needed to come off.

Anna kissed his back once more and stepped away from him. Distractions in the kitchen were bad. Burns were bad. Burnt boyfriends would be  _really_ bad.

However, with a boyfriend that got as bashful as Kristoff got whenever she got as flirtatious as she was now (he hadn't looked at her once while he drained the pasta and dumped it into another bowl) she was  _never_ going to see him without his shirt again. And she  _needed_ to see him without his shirt again. It was  _imperative._ If she had known what he looked like without a shirt before, then they would have already-

 _Whoa, slow down, Anna,_ she admonishes herself.  _One step at a time. You're not ready for that yet. But you're getting there…definitely getting there sooner rather than later._

She distracts herself by getting some plates and forks for the two of them and climbing up onto one of the barstools. Kristoff seems to have returned mostly to normal as he sets down the bowl of pasta and some drinks in front of Anna and then sits down next to her.

"Feeling better?" Kristoff asks, scooping some of the pasta on to Anna's plate.

"Uh-huh." Anna trails one of her toes up Kristoff's calf, making him jump in surprise.

"What's gotten into you, feisty pants?" Kristoff asks, chuckling nervously.

 _You being a pretty amazing person to me despite my craziness,_ Anna thinks to herself.  _And seeing you in nothing but your underwear._

"Nothing," Anna lies as she twirls the pasta around her fork.

"Well as much as I'm  _enjoying_ nothing," Kristoff says, adjusting the borrowed shirt so it covers her shoulder "I'm kind of starving so if you can just hold off…"

Anna rolls her eyes.  _"Fine,"_ she consents. Why'd he move the shirt? All previous signs pointed to Kristoff  _liking_ being able to get little glimpses of exposed skin here and there. Obviously her forwardness was a little too much for him. And obviously he was just lying to make her feel better when he said he was enjoying  _nothing._ She thought she'd been doing a good job of getting him all flustered, too.

"How was your day at the rink?" Anna asks, trying to keep how dejected she feels out of her voice. Kristoff tells her all the highlights of his day, even making her laugh a few times and almost making her forget that she tried to be desirable and failed.

Almost.

Kristoff refuses to let her help clean up or put anything away when they're done with dinner.

"But you've been  _working_ all day," Anna protests, reaching for the bowl of pasta. Kristoff grabs it away from her and dumps it all in a Tupperware container.

"And you were sitting on my bathroom floor, covered in mud, and crying barely an hour ago," Kristoff reminds her. "I got this. Just…wait there for a minute." Kristoff works quickly, rinsing off the plates, putting them in the dishwasher and washing the pot in record time. Anna's feeling even more flustered and frustrated watching him because  _damn,_ seeing a man be all domestic like this was sexy. Seeing Kristoff scrub a  _pot_ was sexy. Either something was very wrong with her or Kristoff had just turned into a walking, talking sexy...person…guy when she hadn't been looking. Anna had always thought that Kristoff was handsome. There really was no denying that he was rather good looking. But now she just...he was making her brain feel really fuzzy.

Kristoff dries off the pot and puts it back it back in its place. "All done," he announces proudly, walking around the counter and back over to Anna.

"Good," Anna says, stretching in her seat. "Do you want to watch a movie or-" Anna gasps in surprise as her chair is pulled back from the counter and spun around. Kristoff is standing over her, a strange glint in his eye. "Um…hi?" Anna says nervously, biting her lip. She barely has time to think before Kristoff's arms are around her, crushing her to him so tight she actually comes up off the seat a little bit. Anna lets out a small gasp of surprise and then Kristoff's lips are against hers, his tongue working its way desperately into her mouth.

Anna wraps her arms around his neck, pressing herself against him.  _Holy shit,_  she thinks to herself as Kristoff's hands wander up and down her body and he bites and he takes her bottom lip between his teeth and flicks his tongue across the flesh. Anna shivers slightly and presses herself against Kristoff even more. Kristoff's hands wander down her body and he pulls his lips away from hers. Anna protests for just a moment before Kristoff picks her up and holds her against him, one arm hooked under her thighs and the other across her lower back. He starts carrying her toward the couch.

"Hi," Anna says breathlessly. What in the world had happened to Kristoff? Not that she minded, but what had brought  _this_ out? Maybe she had had more of an effect on him earlier than she thought. Or maybe it was the shirt. Was it the shirt? It had to be the shirt.

"Hey," Kristoff says, his voice sounding husky. He lay her down gently on the sofa before crawling carefully over her and capturing her lips with his again. Well if wearing his clothes was what it took to set him off like this, then Anna was going to have to fall in the mud more often.

His hands slipped under the hem of the shirt and traveled up her stomach, making her shudder and twitch at his feather light touch and she whimpered into his mouth. Kristoff's hands move further up, brushing against the lacy material of her bra before he grasps firmly at her breasts.

Anna moans into his mouth again and Kristoff flips them so she's straddling his lap. His lips break away from hers and he kisses his way down her neck and across her now exposed collarbone. The shirt has slipped down again, exposing her shoulder again, but Kristoff doesn't seem to mind this time as he drags his lips across the freckled surface and his hands knead at her breasts.

Anna tilts her head back and moans quietly as Kristoff continues to kiss and nip and suck at her skin and-

Anna's eyes fly open as she comes to a realization.

All the other times they've made out on this couch, Kristoff's been wearing some much more sturdy material; like denim. Now that she was in his lap and he was wearing some loose fitting gym shorts and she was pressed up very nicely against him…

She knows what happens to guys in situations like these. And she had assumed that it happened to Kristoff, too, but she hadn't been able to  _tell_ as much thanks to the jeans he always wore. But now she could tell.  _Holy shit,_ she could tell. How had she not been able to tell before? It was pretty obvious that the… _size…_ was a pretty…impressive one.

 _Well,_ Anna thinks as Kristoff's hands move to her back,  _he_ does  _have very big feet._

Anna rolls her shoulders, making the t-shirt slide further down her shoulder than before and threads her fingers through Kristoff's hair before pulling him away from her neck so she could kiss him full on the mouth and have her tongue meet with his and hear him moan and have him make  _her_ moan and she experimentally grinded her hips against his-

Kristoff tore his mouth away from hers, growling in frustration. Anna froze, panting. Had she gone too far? Between the two of them she was always the one with the tendency to get carried away.

 _"Damn it,"_ Kristoff mutters, breathing heavily.

Anna bites at her lip again. "Is…um…is something…did I do something wrong?" she asks nervously, twisting her hands together.

Kristoff looks at her, bewildered. "What? No! Of course not!" He leans forward and presses a few kisses along her shoulder and collarbone. Okay, it wasn't her. But what could it be? "It's this damn thing!" His hands move under her shirt and Anna realizes, finally, that they're right around where the hooks to her bra are. He had been trying to unhook her bra.

Anna decided that, from then on, every time she came over to Kristoff's apartment, she needed to just slip on one of his shirts.

"What's back there, a Rubik's Cube?" Kristoff demanded in frustration. "How do you even put this thing on?" Anna can't help it. She laughs. Hard. She clutches at her stomach as she collapses against Kristoff and laughs into his shoulder, the material of his shirt doing little to muffle the laughter.

"…'s not that funny," Kristoff mumbles, his hands dropping down to her waist. Anna takes a few deep breaths, trying to sober herself up.

"I'm sorry," she says fanning herself. "I'm sorry. You're right. Not funny." But it is. Anna clears her throat. "It's just some hooks back there, I promise. And it's real easy once you get the hang of it." Anna grins and kisses her way along his jaw, pecking her lips lightly against his before leaning back, a mischievous look in her eye. "I could…" Anna says lightly walking her fingers up Kristoff's chest, "I mean, if you wanted me to…" Her fingers hook underneath the collar of his shirt and she moves them back and forth. "I could take off this shirt so you could get a better look at the hooks."

Kristoff pales and looks completely panicked at this idea.

"Or I could just do this," Anna offers and she easily maneuvers her hands under the shirt, unhooks her bra, moves the straps down her arms, and takes the bra out from under her shirt, tossing it beside Kristoff on the couch.

"Better?" Anna asks, trying not to laugh at Kristoff's bewildered look.

"B-but… _how?!"_  Kristoff asks. One of his hands twitch toward the bra but he pulls it back at the last second.

"It's not gonna bite," Anna teases.

"I don't even come  _close,_ and you just pulled it off like it was nothing and without taking off your shirt!"

"So this is my shirt now?" Anna asks, grinning.

Kristoff's blushing as his hands move under the hem again and start travelling up her stomach. "Well…it does look… _much_ better on you," he admits.

"Well, next time I'm over, I'll be sure to put it on again," Anna promises. "And we'll go over the basics of bra removal."

* * *

Kristoff exhales shakily as he brings his truck to a halt. Last night with Anna was great but some boundaries that had remained pretty firm in the past had been crossed and he had to reel himself in. If things with Anna continued at this rate...

Kristoff breathed heavily again. These thoughts in his head now were the exact reason why he had taken so long to get to bed after Anna had left…and why he had taken extra long in the shower this morning. And they were why he was at the drug store at eight in the morning.

He got down out of his truck and walked quickly through the automatic doors. He was an adult male with a very attractive girlfriend and recent,  _ahem,_ events were making him realize that certain precautions needed to be taken.

Oh, boy, he couldn't do this. But he needed to do this…maybe he would grab something else off the shelf first. Kristoff grabbed a bag of chips and spent  _much_ longer than needed to select a soda out of the fridge. This should not be that hard! Men bought them all the time! Hell,  _women_ probably bought them when men couldn't bring themselves to.

The thought of Anna, happily skipping through this store and putting down the item he came here intending to buy on the counter with no shame comes to his mind. She'd probably make friends with the cashier, too.

Okay, no.  _No._ He could do this. All he had to do was walk back toward the pharmacy and- _God, damn it!_ Why did there have to be someone else in the aisle? Couldn't he have just a little bit of privacy trying to make this purchase?

Kristoff goes to the next aisle over, pretending to be deciding between cold medicines while he waits for the other man to make a selection and leave. Okay, he can do this. He can do this. Just pick up a box and go. How hard can it be to pick out a box of…

… _why are there so many?_

Kristoff scrubs a hand across his face. This idea is starting to seem like a bad one. Of course he shouldn't have come here this morning. Had it really been necessary to make this trip?

His thought wander back to last night, Anna straddled on top of him, grinding her hips against him as his hands grasp her bare chest underneath his shirt-

 _Damn it, again?!_  Kristoff curses himself as he adjusts his jeans uncomfortably. Didn't doctors warn against this kind of thing happening too often? And in  _this aisle_ of all places for it to happen…

Okay, maybe if he just narrowed it down by brand and then worked his way from there, things would be easier and he could get the hell out of here. He heard about this brand a lot. Well, it wasn't like he went around trying to learn things about  _this_ brand in particular…it…just…peopleknewaboutthisbrand _okay?!_

Kristoff took another deep breath. He could do this. He could do this. Okay…wow even this brand gave him too many choices. Did…did people actually buy some of these? Did people enjoy them? People were weird. But then again, they knew what they liked and Kristoff…Kristoff had yet to find out. What he liked, that is. But it wasn't just about him, it was about Anna, too and she was a big consideration in all of this.

And Anna was someone who always liked to try new things so…he picked out a box from the shelf. There. That one was probably a good one. But…size was another consideration to take into account…and Kristoff didn't mean height difference. He picked up a second box and hurriedly made his way to the front counter, dodging any other customers he might run in to. Luckily there was nobody else in line and he was able to put all his things on the counter.

 _"Hi!_ How are you doing today!" the cashier said in a very cheerful and rather  _loud_ voice.

"Just…just fine," Kristoff mumbles quietly, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Did you find everything okay, honey?" she asks as she scans the chips, the soda. Why does she have to be so loud?

"…yes," Kristoff, still keeping his voice quiet. Maybe if he keeps speaking quietly, she'll get the hint and stop being so loud.

The cashier scans the first of the boxes and the machine beeps angrily.  _Oh no._  The cahier frowns and scans the box again and again and again.  _Oh, no._

"Oh, dear, it's not scanning right," the cashier huffs.

"It's alright," Kristoff says hurriedly.  _Please don't do what I think you're about to do._ "I can just go grab another box-"

"Oh, that's alright, sweet pea, no need to trouble yourself," the cashier assures him before cupping her hands over her mouth and screaming  _"MADDIE! I NEED A PRICE CHECK!"_

Kristoff buries his face in his hands. Has the Earth opened up to swallow him whole yet? That should happen any second now, right?

A disembodied voice who must be Maddie shouted back  _"PRICE CHECK ON WHAT?!"_

 _"THE TROJAN PLATINUM PACK!"_ the cashier shouts back. She picks up the second box and thinks for just a second before adding  _"AND THE MAGNUM XL WHILE YOU'RE AT IT!"_

Kristoff resolves to never shop at that drugstore again.


	9. The Screw Up

* * *

It's only Elsa dragging her along that keeps Anna from dropping to the ground and falling asleep in the parking lot right then and there. It was eight-thirty on a Sunday morning! Anna should be in bed, sleeping, having pleasant dreams (starring a shirtless Kristoff), and she should  _not_ be awake until at least noon.

"Come on, Anna," Elsa says, pulling on her arm again. "This meeting will only last for an hour at most."

 _"You said twenty minutes yesterday!"_ Anna whines. Her whole life was a lie, she decided.

Elsa smiles at her apologetically as she unlocks the doors to the ice rink and leads her inside. "I thought it'd make you feel better."

"So you  _lied._ "

"Well…maybe I fibbed a little bit…"

"Fibbing is  _lying,_ Elsa. You made me get up this early and you  _lied_ to me. I'm writing you out of my will."

Elsa giggles at her threats. Why was she laughing? This was  _serious business._  Elsa wasn't going to be inheriting her chocolate stash now."I'm sorry, but, people have been short on their tills a lot over the past couple months and it's only gotten worse. So all the managers decided we needed to have a mandatory meeting with all of the staff and a workshop on the importance of counting change correctly."

Anna frowns as Elsa pulls her toward the office. "You mean Kristoff is behind this, too? That bastard. He sucks. I'll never kiss him again."

"He texted before we left for here to let me know he was picking you up a mocha," Elsa told her. She pushed Anna down into Kristoff's empty desk chair before sauntering into her own office.

Anna thought for a moment. "I guess I can forgive him this time around," Anna decides with a yawn. She sets her head down on the desk, face buried in her arms, trying to pretend that Elsa dragging her out of bed at some unholy hour is a nightmare and she's actually still in her nice, soft, comfortable, warm bed. Ugh. Too early for this.

She must have drifted off, because the warm hand at her back, even if it's gentle, startles her awake. "Go away," Anna groans.

Warm breath tickles her ear. "You're sitting at  _my_ desk, grumpy pants." Kristoff chuckles as he gently grabs her shoulder and pulls her up.

"I don't wanna be grumpy pants," Anna whines, her head lolling to the side as she rests against the back of the chair. Kristoff wasn't lying. He really did pick out a comfy desk chair. "I want to be feisty pants or pretty pants."

Kristoff snorts. "Pretty pants?"

"Shuddup, I'm tired. And Elsa said you were bringing me a mocha." Kristoff grabs her hand and places a warm coffee cup in it. Anna lifts her other hand to cradle it carefully. "Did you remember the sugar?"

"Yup." Anna's eyes finally flutter open enough for her to make sure that the coffee is facing the right direction before leaning down and taking a tentative sip, and then a few more. "Thank you." She finally looks up at Kristoff properly. He's clean-shaven, hair combed neatly, and it's completely unfair that he looks like this in the morning when Anna had to put in some effort to make it look like she wasn't part of the walking dead. She wants to kiss him. But she needs to drink more coffee first.

"You're welcome," Kristoff says. He leans down and presses a kiss to the top of her head before sitting on the edge of his desk, facing her. "You left some of your chocolate out on the coffee table yesterday. Sven almost got to it."

Anna winces. "I'm sorry. I'll put my chocolate away from now on."

"You said that the first five times you accidentally left your chocolate out." Even if Kristoff is trying to keep his tone playful, Anna can detect the serious tone underneath it all. "I just don't want Sven getting sick because of some chocolate that can easily go into the fridge."

"I really am sorry, Kristoff," Anna insists. "I don't want Sven getting sick, either. I care about him just as much as you do. I will keep the chocolate in the kitchen and out of Sven's reach."

"Just don't make me ban chocolate from the apartment all together," Kristoff warns.

Anna gasps. "You  _wouldn't_."

"Get my dog sick and I will." But the seriousness is gone as Kristoff's mouth twitches up into a smile. All is forgiven.

"New subject," Anna decides, patting Kristoff on the knee. "Notice anything different about me today?" She turns the chair left and right as Kristoff scrutinizes her closely.

"…new clothes?" Kristoff asks cautiously, afraid of getting the answer wrong.

"Yep! I did some shopping for my Thanksgiving trip! I got a few new sweaters, shirts, jeans, two new hats, some new mittens, a couple of scarves and these  _really_ pretty socks. And I got a head start on some Christmas shopping."

Kristoff's brow furrows. "You sure that you're paid enough to buy all that?" he jokes.

"Oh, shush. I've been saving up," Anna tells him. "Just wait until the sales  _after_ Thanksgiving. I'll have all sorts of new pretty outfits to show off."

Kristoff stares down at his feet for a while, quietly sipping at his own coffee. "When are you leaving, again?" Despite his best attempts to appear impassive about the whole trip, Anna knew he was going to miss her.

"This Saturday…maybe around lunch time if I can convince Elsa to not get me up early again. We'll drive over to Corona and pick up our cousin Rapunzel-"

"Wait. That's seriously her name? I thought you were kidding."

"Her parents went through a hippie phase. I think it's some kind of plant. Anyway, we'll stay the night at her place and then set out early the next morning for the ski resort."

Kristoff snorted. "You ski?"

"They have a spa, too." Her? Ski? She's injured herself enough that year without hurtling herself down a mountain.

"How much are we paying you?" Kristoff asks incredulously.

Anna rolls her eyes. "Mom and dad helped out some. There was also a deal on Groupon. It's my early Christmas present to them…sort of."

"Well…" Kristoff leans down and presses his lips to hers. "Have fun. I'll miss you."

"You still have me for a few more days," Anna reminds him. "But I'll miss you, too. And I lo-love that you got me this coffee. It'll keep me awake all the way through this meeting." Anna bites her lip and looks away. She almost told him that she loves him. But she couldn't do it  _now. Here._ With  _Elsa_ in earshot!

Speaking of Elsa, her older sister stuck her head out of her office, a stack of papers in her hands. "Hey, Kristoff, I'm done printing up the worksheets. Do you think you can find enough pens and pencils? We should have some in the supply closet."

Anna glares at both of them. "You two are making me do a  _worksheet?_ "

* * *

Before the meeting even starts, Kristoff knows that something serious is going on. Georgia and Keefe pull him and Elsa aside and tell them that they need to speak with them once the meeting is over.  _Alone._

After everyone on staff shuffles out of the building and he gives Anna the keys to his truck ("Go warm yourself up. I'll be out in just a few minutes and then we can do lunch.") Georgia shuts the door to the office behind her, a grim expression on her face.

"It's about all the short tills," Georgia says, going to stand by Keefe. "We don't think they're all accidental."

Kristoff and Elsa both look equally confused. "I thought we ruled that possibility out," Elsa says.

"There isn't a single person on staff that has significantly more money missing than everyone else," Kristoff reminds them. He would know. He's the numbers guy on staff. "A thief on staff would probably have a lot of money missing from their till overall, right?"

"Normally, yes," Keefe agrees. "But what if the thief is stealing from other's tills during their shift? I think we need to look at who was on shift every time money has gone missing since…I don't know, January? I may be wrong and it may be nothing, but in case there  _is_ a link…"

The thought of a  _thief_ being right under their noses for so long did not settle well with Kristoff.

"I'll start looking at the records tomorrow," Kristoff decides. "If I do find a link, then I'll start reviewing the security tapes."

"Why would someone steal? We pay more than well enough," Elsa wonders aloud.

"Some people are desperate," Georgia says, shrugging. "Some just can't stop spending no matter what. Can you think of anyone on staff who might have spent more than they should be able to?"

_New clothes?_

_Yep!_

_You sure that you're paid enough to buy all that?_

Kristoff shakes his head. No.  _No._ That was ridiculous. Obviously it had to be someone else.

"Not off the top of my head."

* * *

It's Thursday and Kristoff is slowly going through all the records. Maybe if he stays late tonight, he'll finally have a  _name_. It's slow work. And it doesn't help that he's being constantly interrupted by cashiers looking to get their till counted down.

And his mood may be in part because of all this work is cutting in to time he  _could_ be spending with Anna. But when he's not at work, he's either sleeping or studying and they've only been able to text or eat hurried lunches together.

He's keeping a running tally of who is working during the shift that money goes missing and so far, it's down to ten possible suspects. He feels uneasy about one name in particular that's still on the list.

Georgia and Anna emerge from Elsa's office, where the safe is kept. Anna walks over to him while Georgia slips out the door and back to the rink.

"My till was perfect today," Anna says proudly. She leans down and presses a light kiss to his temple. When she starts to pull away, Kristoff hooks an arm around her waist and pulls her into his lap.

"Looks like those worksheets helped," Kristoff teases, his nose burying into her hair. It's unfair that he had to figure out this possible theft on the week that Anna's supposed to be leaving. They've spent time apart before, it's true. And he's sure the time will fly and Anna will be back before he knows it. But that doesn't mean he's going to miss her any less.

Oh, God. Anna's turned him into a sap.

But he's in love with her, so he doesn't mind.

"I'm going to ignore that." Anna wraps her arms around him, buries her face in his shirt. "Are you  _sure_ that you don't want me to come over tonight?"

Of course he wants her to come over. He always wants her over. But as much as he enjoys her company, he's too tired and disgruntled at the end of day and he doesn't want to end up snapping at her over something stupid (and he's done it before and he felt awful about it and he doesn't want a repeat).

"You don't want to be around me for the next couple of days. I'll just be in a bad mood. Besides…" he pulls back and looks at her accusingly "last time you were at my apartment, you got bored and painted Sven's nails bright blue."

"No, I didn't," Anna said automatically, too quickly.

Kristoff kisses her hair and whispers "Liar" in her ear.

"Okay, maybe I did," Anna allows "Maybe I lied about painting Sven's nails-"

"Maybe?"

"Maybe. But I have to tell a  _little_ white lie every once in a while." She looks up at him, smiling mischievously. "It keeps you on your toes."

"Because that's a great way to build on our relationship." A flash of something catches his eye. Kristoff pushes some of Anna's hair back behind her ears, revealing a pair of sparkling snow man earrings. "Those are new."

Anna nods. "I did some more shopping yesterday. I got a couple pairs of earrings and two new pairs of boots. I'm gonna look super cute at the ski resort. Plus these snowmen earrings go with my  _necklace._ " She touches the snowflake necklace that Kristoff gave her nearly a year ago now.

Kristoff leans back in the chair, eyes slipping closed. "You have a shopping problem," he says.

"Shopping is  _never_ a problem."

"You'll waste all your money."

"It's the time of year for wasting money, Kristoff. Maybe you should get into the spirit. Maybe that's why you're so  _boring_ and I'm so much fun."

Kristoff rolls his eyes behind his closed lids. "What happens when you run out of money to spend?"

"Trust me, that's not gonna happen." He feels Anna slide off his lap and he opens his eyes to look up at her. "I know you're too busy to walk me out, but can I at least get a kiss?" Anna asks teasingly.

"But that would mean I have to get up," Kristoff fake-pouts. "What if I just pucker up and you lean down and give  _me_ a kiss?" He puckers his lips out and Anna nearly doubles over in laughter. "I'm still waiting," Kristoff reminds her.

"Remind me why I'm dating you again?" Anna asks between laughs.

"Well, let me think. There's bad choices, bad luck, bad taste," he muses, counting off all the reasons on his fingers. Anna finally leans down and shuts him up with a kiss.

And it's the small moments like these where he's just bursting to tell her he loves her, but then he chickens out. No, not here. Not when he's buried under work and irritable and Anna's getting ready to leave for a week. Does she have to go?

"I need to start packing," Anna says when they finally part. "Remember: I leave in two days so we need to try to get together before I go. How about I come and visit during your shift tomorrow? I'll convince Elsa to give you a longer lunch break and we can go out somewhere."

The idea sounds nice and Kristoff agrees to it. It should only take him until the end of today to finally get through the records and finally figure out who's behind all the missing money.

But any good feelings are replaced by a horrible sinking feeling in his stomach when one name begins showing up significantly more than the others.

* * *

The rink had been closed for an hour and Kristoff really needed to get back and feed Sven, but he had finally made his way through all of the records. He didn't like what he was seeing. He didn't like the conversation he'd have to have from Elsa.

One name stood out.

One name was there every time money went short.

One name.

And that name was screaming out at Kristoff over and over again.

_Anna. Anna. Anna. Anna. Anna. Anna. Anna. Anna. Anna. Anna._

* * *

Kristoff e-mailed Marshmallow about the security videos. Along with managing to look menacing while sharpening a pair of ice skates, Marshmallow was their main security guy. He archived all of their security videos, brought up specific ones when needed, and occasionally threw out unruly guests. According to Marshmallow, he'd get Kristoff the videos by the time he was back from his lunch with Anna.

His girlfriend.

The love of his life.

Possibly a thief.

No. That was  _crazy._

But was it?

It doesn't help when he thinks of the shopping bags that are no doubt piled up in her room and of the photos she's snapped in department store dressing rooms and sent to him.

No.  _No._ Anna is the last person in the world who would steal from the ice rink. Especially an ice rink owned by her own  _parents._ But the records were telling him otherwise. And he was feeling a heavy weight of guilt in his chest. Even before he had looked through their records, he had immediately thought of Anna. He needed to check the videos, find a way to clear her name and his own conscience.

"You're quiet," Anna observes. Kristoff starts, dropping his fork. It clatters loudly on his plate in the empty restaurant.

"Sorry," Kristoff mutters, picking up his fork again. "What'd you say?"

"I said you were being quiet," Anna repeats. "Not that you're usually  _not_ quiet because I talk enough for both of us, like, half the time, but…" she giggles nervously. "Anyway you're…quiet. Something on your mind?"

 _Yes_ , he wants to say. But he shakes his head instead. "Just…work…school…stuff."

Anna smiles sympathetically and reaches across the table to pat his hand. "Finals are coming up in a couple of weeks. Hang in there. And Elsa said she was postponing the Christmas decorating since we won't be getting back until late next Sunday. But…Olaf and Marshmallow might try and bug you into letting them in to decorate the press box." She stabs a piece of her pasta with her fork, pops it in her mouth.

There was no reason for her to steal money.

But there might be and he just doesn't know it.

"Anna?" Kristoff says, she looks up, eyes bright and happy. This is not a good idea. "There's something I need to tell you and…just be honest with me," he pleads.

"Me? I'm  _always_ honest," Anna brags. "George Washington's got  _nothing_ on me."

Kristoff stops, shoulders slumping. "Abraham Lincoln was the honest one."

"Him, too. Now what were you going to say?" Anna looks at him eagerly, waiting with bated breath for what he'll say next.

Kristoff sighs. This is a bad idea. "After the meeting on Sunday, Georgia and Keefe brought it to mine and Elsa's attention that the tills might not be short on accident."

A little light goes out of Anna's eyes, like what Kristoff said was not what she had been expecting. "You mean someone's stealing from the tills?"

Kristoff swallows. "Most likely. But the thing is, there isn't one person who's missing significantly more money than anybody else, so someone's probably going around swiping money from other people's tills somehow. I looked through the records over the past couple of months to see who was on shift whenever money went missing…and there was one person that was on shift every time.

"Great! Wait…not great," Anna amends. "Stealing isn't great it's just great that you caught the guy!"

Kristoff shook his head. "Not great…actually."

"Well who is it?" Kristoff couldn't meet her eyes. It was the only answer Anna needed. "Wait...you…you're not seriously thinking that  _I…Kristoff…_ " She sounded hurt and wounded and he couldn't really blame her.

"I'm not accusing you of anything, I'm just saying that on paper…things aren't looking so great for you."

He finally summons up the courage to look Anna in the eye. She looks hurt and angry and he can't really blame her.

"Marshmallow will be bringing in the security videos by the time I get back to the rink and we'll be able to see who exactly was swiping money from the tills."

"Someone meaning me?" Anna's voice wavers as she asks the question.

"Someone meaning whoever has been taking money!" Kristoff insisted.  _Someone might be Anna,_ he thought to himself, despite desperately wanting to believe in Anna's innocence.

"Why would you even think that I'm the one taking money, Kristoff?" Anna snaps. She's rarely angry at anybody or anything and there is a little twinge of guilt somewhere deep within himself for making her feel this way.

"You haven't exactly been pinching pennies, lately," Kristoff reminds her. "I know we pay well at the rink, but we don't pay  _that_ well."

"I  _save up my money!_ " Anna insists. "I save it and I plan all my purchases before they're made. And I don't want to play the rich kid card here but, I'll play it anyway: my parents are financially stable. They have money. They provide me with food, gas for my car, and a roof over my head. I  _don't need to steal money from their company._ "

"Nobody should have to steal with how well we pay, but it's still happening." It doesn't make sense, no matter how hard he tries to make sense of it. "The only reason I told you about this was so that if there's something on the videos that I or Elsa or your parents wouldn't be happy to see, you could tell me now."

"I'm  _innocent,_ " Anna insisted. "Why won't you just believe me?"

Kristoff groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Look, Anna…I love you, but I'm just trying to do my job here."

The silence was nearly deafening at their table for a few very long moments. Kristoff kneaded his palms against his forehead, trying to figure out what he could say to make this better.

At the same time he hears Anna sniffle loudly, Kristoff realizes that he's messed up.  _Badly._

_Shit._

"Anna," Kristoff starts, reaching a hand across the table to her. Anna leans away from him, digging through her purse. "Anna, I'm-"

An idiot.

A terrible boyfriend.

_Sorry._

"The first time you tell me that you love me," Anna says, voice trembling, "and it's when you're accusing me of stealing money from my parent's company. Here!" She throws a few bills down in front of her. "That should cover my half for lunch. And whatever's left over can go back toward the money I  _'stole.'_ " Anna jumps up from her seat and makes for the door of the restaurant while Kristoff is still sitting there trying to process just how  _badly_ he's screwed up.

"Anna-Anna,  _wait!"_  Kristoff pleads, desperately trying to dig his wallet out of his pocket. His hand gets stuck for a moment and he curses. It wasn't supposed to be like this. This wasn't how he was supposed to tell her that he loved her. He was actually going to try and do something really romantic that she'd enjoy. They were going to go look at the starts while curled up in blankets in the bed of his truck and that was when he was  _supposed_ to say it.

And now he's gone and screwed everything up.

The moment that Kristoff's hand got stuck was all the time Anna needed. By the time he had thrown down his money, grabbed his coat, and ran out the door after her, Anna was already unlocking the door to her car. "Anna!" Kristoff calls. He slips on the ice on the sidewalk, nearly falls.

"I'm not talking to you!" Anna snaps at him. The tone in her voice and the look on her face is enough to stop him in his tracks and Kristoff just stands there helplessly as Anna drove away, tears streaming down her face.

Kristoff's knees feel weak underneath him and he slowly eases himself down to sit on the curb. "What have I done?" he asks himself.

He doesn't get an answer.


End file.
